Summer celebrations - demonstrating for the right to strike
Following my previous remarks on French attitudes towards demonstrating and striking, today’s events in France can only be described as perfect timing. They (the French) have today oiled up and flexed their muscles in front of the Assemblée Nationale. The French parliament has met to discuss the proposed implementation of a law known as le service minimum. The law will oblige, or rather insist that public services provide basic amenities during periods of strike action, calling into question the robust nature of the French constitutional right to – yes you guessed it – strike.
Torrents of revolutionary chanters and drummers, as well as members of one of France’s largest trade unions known as the CGT and the usual sporadic scattering of communists, joined forces to tell the Government that they should not reduce the right to strike to that of "minor importance."
From the safe confines of my home in York, I hear an interview with a priest who declares his work is a “symbol of his commitment.” Commitment to what? To God? To society? It makes me ponder over whether or not those who cherish and implement their God-given right to strike are divinely committed to the latter. On the other hand, working men and women surely reserve the right to hold politicians accountable for the conditions in which they work.
Public transport organisations are due to undertake strike action in France as the Rugby World Cup gets under way at the beginning of September. I can only imagine the chaos when scrum loads of rugby supporters all wrestle their way into the few remaining taxis the city has to offer.
It’s getting late here in York; in two hours time metro drivers across Paris will be starting their morning shift. I feel the romantic undertones I assigned to French attitudes towards strike action in my previous writings are very often confused with the stark realities of some people’s daily working life.
