Transport Workers, Teachers, Hospital Staff, and Undefined Third Coalition Announce Actions; Macron Confirms He Has Read Their Statement
Reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.
PARIS, France — France’s spring social movement season has opened with coordinated strikes announced by transport workers (SNCF, RATP), hospital staff (AP-HP), secondary school teachers (SNES-FSU, CGT-Educ’Action), and what a press release from the CGT described as “allied formations in solidarity,” a category whose specific membership the CGT press office said would be confirmed “as the action develops,” which is the French labor movement’s equivalent of “we’ll figure it out on the day” expressed in the vocabulary of organized labor solidarity.
President Macron issued a statement confirming that his government had “taken note” of the strike announcements and would “engage in dialogue with social partners” through the appropriate channels, a formulation that the Prime Minister’s communications team has used in response to strike announcements approximately 40 times since Macron took office and that union leaders have described as “the government saying it heard us without saying it will do anything about what it heard,” which is an accurate paraphrase of what the formulation means.
The Strikers’ Demands
The demands span several policy areas that have accumulated grievance since the 2023 pension reform, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64 and which produced the largest protest movement in France in a generation. The pension reform is now law. The protests did not prevent it from becoming law. The law’s provisions are being implemented. The grievance about the provisions is being expressed through this spring’s strikes, which is how French social protest works: it does not always change the policy, but it does continue to exist as a presence that policy must acknowledge, which the policy does by taking note and engaging in dialogue through appropriate channels, which is the policy’s equivalent of saying hello to someone you will not be inviting to dinner.
The SNCF workers are striking over wage levels relative to inflation — a demand that has force given that French inflation, while lower than some European peers, has reduced real wages for public sector workers who are subject to salary frameworks that the government adjusts slowly and that inflation adjusts quickly. The teachers are striking over classroom conditions, staffing levels, and the curriculum reforms of the 2024 school year, which the teaching unions describe as “insufficiently consulted” and the Education Ministry describes as “subject to consultation that occurred on the schedule announced.” Both descriptions are accurate. The consultation was on the announced schedule. The teaching unions say the schedule did not allow adequate consultation. This is the same disagreement France has been having about education reform since approximately 1968 and will be having, at the current trajectory, until approximately 2068.
The Transport Impact
The one-day strike’s transport impact — fewer trains, reduced metro frequency on some lines, modified bus service — produced the predictable response: Parisians who needed to travel found ways to travel, or didn’t travel, or expressed opinions about the strike on social media that fell along political lines that were predictable before the strike began. The Velib bicycle system (Paris’s bike share) reported elevated ridership. Carpooling apps reported elevated bookings. The 15-minute city concept that Anne Hidalgo has been implementing — the goal that most daily needs should be accessible within a 15-minute walk or cycle from home — was tested by commuters who discovered that their needs were, more than they expected, accessible within 15 minutes, which is either evidence that the concept is working or evidence that disruption clarifies priorities, or both.
SNCF’s passenger information page carried strike notices with the specific, technical communication that French transport strikes require: which lines are affected, what percentage of services will operate, what the schedule for services that do operate will be, and a recommendation to consult the page frequently as the situation evolves. This is a communication infrastructure for strikes that France has built over decades and that operates smoothly, which is the peculiar achievement of a country that has institutionalized disruption to the point where disruption itself functions efficiently.
What Happens Next
What happens next is: the strike occurs. The government takes note. Dialogue is engaged. A meeting is scheduled. The meeting produces a communique that both sides describe as “productive.” A follow-up meeting is scheduled. In the follow-up, the government offers something at the margin of what the unions demanded. The unions assess whether the margin is sufficient to suspend further action. Some unions accept. Some do not. The process continues until summer, when everyone goes on holiday, and resumes in September, when everyone returns. This is the French social contract: in continuous negotiation, regularly disrupted, ultimately stable, always expensive in train tickets for the people in the middle. The trains are running again tomorrow. France is normal. Spring is here.
For industrial action with seasonal regularity, see The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
