I’m On Gréve (Strike) Today

Yesterday was one of those days we have many times throughout the year when there is a national strike to protest about Government reforms. I’m not quite sure what yesterday’s was all about, probably more of Sarkozy’s ‘social initiatives’, but as usual it was on a Thursday.

These strikes don’t bother me that much. I don’t use the trains or the two buses a day which go off to some of the local villages. I tend not to have too much to do with Government offices and the fact that some of the French radio stations were apparently playing music all day instead of their current affairs programmes, completely passed me by. We don’t have French TV so if there were programme cancellations we didn’t notice them (shame on us I hear you say but French TV is not very good) and as far as I am concerned the village worked as normal, although come to think of it, I didn’t see the guy who sweeps the roads yesterday.

In fact, although the local internet forum had warned us of the strike, I had completely forgotten about it until the kids were going to school in the morning when I heard them hoping that when they reached school they would be sent home again as teachers are notorious in their penchant for taking strike action.

Thereafter, throughout the day it, (the strike) completely escaped my notice as, (a) I was working down in the jungle again, and (b) the kids were obviously kept at school because there were no frantic phone calls to pick them up. Indeed, it was only when they returned at night and Guy moaned about the fact that they had only had Pasta as a main course for school lunch and that they’d had to use plastic cutlery, that I remembered about it.

Now, returning to my first paragraph and why it’s usual to have the strike on a Thursday (or even a Tuesday). It’s because the strikers will then take the Friday (or the Monday) off and have a long week-end. It’s called the ‘pont’, or the ‘bridge’ and it’s got something to do with the spare day, in today’s case, the Friday, being the ‘bridge’ between the strike day and the weekend.

Everybody thinks the ‘bridge’ is a French invention but I have to say that in the bad old days of the UK’s car industry in the 60’s and the 70’s, it was not unusual for the workers in the car plant to ‘walk out’ on a Thursday so they could have the Friday off and have a long weekend. Indeed, in the case where too many cars had been produced and they were being stockpiled because of poor sales, the directors would get me in my role as an Industrial Engineer, to start a strike, usually on a Thursday knowing that the workers wouldn't bother coming back on the Friday, by removing the little shanty towns the workers built beside the production line, or by speeding the line up ever so slightly which was noticed immediately.

‘Everbody out’, was the cry and depending on what action had been taken, between two and eight thousand workers would down tools and hit the streets.

A couple of weeks later, when the spare cars had been shipped to dealers and the workers were beginning to feel the pinch financially, the strike would be resolved and everything would be back to normal, until the next time!

So, I think I’ll go on strike today, but it’s probably too late for it to have any effect. I’ve already made the batter for the kid’s breakfast pancakes and I’ll have to run them down to the school bus. I’ll work my socks off in the jungle for a couple of hours and I know there’s a few little things to fix around the house. I’ll probably take J out to lunch and the cats and dog will need fed. Oh and I’ve just washed the dishes from last night (the dishwasher is dead – R.I.P.).

Strike? It’s not worth it. I’d just have to do twice as much tomorrow, and anyway it’s a Friday. Nobody in France strikes on a Friday!