Following up on a post I wrote earlier about the Ten Commandments of a French Meal, if the Bible had been written by a Frenchman, one of the Ten Commandments would surely have been “Thou shalt not work.” Don’t believe me? Read this:
Life isn’t about work. If you work too much, you’ll lose your mind.
This wasn’t said by a union boss, but by the President of France, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), and it sums up the philosophical essence of the French work ethic, especially among French civil servants.
Strike of the Day
The famous French comedian Coluche (Michel Colucci, 1944-1986) once said, “My mother was a civil servant, and my father didn’t work either.” Civil servants, called fonctionnaires in French, include teachers, firefighters, public service employees and professors at public universities. They’re joined by postal and railway workers, who aren’t technically civil servants but enjoy similar rights.
As a result, official statistics count roughly 3.3 million civil servants in France, and unofficial estimates put civil servants at around a quarter of the entire French workforce. It’s almost impossible to fire a civil servant in France, and the only way to get rid of a lazy one is through a promotion or a transfer (with the employee’s full consent, of course) to a better post (say, the post office in Saint-Tropez).
Civil servants earned these extra rights thanks to the strike, called grève in French, named after the square by Paris‘s city hall where the unemployed used to gather. Just as a French restaurant has its “dish of the day,” the French calendar has its “strike of the month,” and when one public sector goes on strike, everyone else tends to join the party and the whole country grinds to a halt.
As in many places, the title of “strike champions” in France undoubtedly goes to the railway workers’ union. The moment the weather in Paris starts to cool down, its leaders’ tempers start to heat up, and the next strike is on its way. Some say the reason France lost its bid to host the 2012 Olympics to England was a 24-hour warning strike by transport workers, which happened to coincide exactly with the Olympic Committee’s visit to Paris (despite the government’s pleas to move the strike to another day).
Strike in Paris: June 2023
French labor unions are continuing their fight over the pension changes, and after May’s protests, they’re calling for strikes to continue through June.
A day of protest is planned for June 6, 2023. Public transportation in Paris will of course be affected by the protest. Public sector workers in rail, buses, the métro and so on are expected to strike, though this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet.
Air traffic controller strike: controllers are expected to take part in the protest, so delays and flight cancellations are expected at airports across France, including Orly, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes.
Other sectors may join the strike as well, including healthcare, but there’s no precise information yet.
Strike at Disneyland Paris
Meanwhile, employees at Disneyland Paris started their own labor dispute, disrupting the park’s day-to-day operations. In recent months, employees of the park and some of its hotels have demanded a 200-euro monthly pay raise along with other benefits, including more flexible working hours. On May 23, a strike broke out at the park, and employees marched in protest. The disruptions continued, and shows and parades were canceled as well. Wait times for rides spiked, and park guests were understandably unhappy about it.
The strike continued on June 3 as well, still disrupting shows and various activities in the park. Disneyland allows refunds on tickets, or lets you change the dates on tickets you’ve already bought. If you paid for extra services, like Disney Premier Access, and couldn’t use them in the park, you’ll get a refund.
Given the ongoing protests, expect disruptions in the park for as long as the dispute continues, and the biggest issue is longer lines than usual. If a visit isn’t a must for you right now, I’d recommend waiting for another opportunity, until things calm down.
Labor Union Strikes in Paris: March 2023
Update, March 23, 2023
Today is a day of strikes and protests.
This had been planned for a week, and even though the pension reform passed, and despite President Emmanuel Macron (b. 1977)’s speech yesterday (more of an interview, really), in which he once again firmly explained the need for the reform, a large share of the French public wasn’t convinced and will still take to the streets to protest as planned, from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The march will run from Place de la Bastille to Place de l’Opéra Garnier.
This whole perimeter will be closed to traffic starting at 12:30 p.m., and it will be complicated for pedestrians to get around unless you’d like to join the protest yourself.
I’d recommend spending the day exploring the Left Bank (Saint-Germain and the Latin Quarter: the area around the Panthéon, the Bon Marché department store, the Luxembourg Gardens, Saint-Sulpice church…) or Montmartre (if you can get there on foot without crossing the protest route), or around the Eiffel Tower.
As you can see from the métro app screenshot, there will be no métro today (nor RER, intercity trains or buses). There will be a tramway for anyone who wants to travel from the west side of the city to the east that way.
Airports:
Air traffic controllers in Orly and the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Marseille have requested the cancellation of 30% of today’s flights.
Many French people will work from home today, and it’s likely that restaurants, cafés, museums and shops that are open today will be short-staffed here and there (whether because people couldn’t make it to work, or because they’re striking or protesting), even though many Parisians are getting around the city by bike today. But not all workers live in central Paris.
No rain is forecast for today, but it will be a bit overcast (typical Parisian weather 
), and there will be some wind in the afternoon.
Enjoy your day in the City of Light as much as you can!
Tomorrow will be another day, and Paris will always be Paris: strikes and protests are simply part of the package that comes with this beautiful country!
Update, March 17, 2023
Yesterday was a particularly tense and stormy day at the National Assembly. Macron brought forward his plan to raise the retirement age, and it failed to win a majority. In response, he invoked Article 49.3, which allowed him to push the reform through without the Assembly’s support.
This triggered an uproar, as members of the Assembly from the far-left and far-right parties began demonstratively singing La Marseillaise and called on their supporters to take to the streets. The supporters did exactly that, surrounding the National Assembly building and spilling over toward Place de la Concorde. Boulevard Haussmann also became the scene of violent protests.
The far-left and far-right parties announced they would submit a motion of no confidence the following week: a parliamentary tool that has been part of the French constitution since 1958, requiring the government to appoint a new prime minister within 14 days or, failing that, to dissolve the Assembly, which could lead to new legislative elections in extreme cases.
How Will the Strike Affect Your Trip to Paris?
After a 15-day strike by garbage collectors and waste incineration plants across Paris, 10,000 tons of trash piled up in the districts managed by the city of Paris. However, the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 18th and 19th arrondissements managed to maintain reasonable sanitation levels, since garbage collection there was handled by private companies.
The mayor of Paris (Socialist Party), who supports the strike, announced her backing for the strike movement, and in a letter posted on her Twitter account, refused the interior minister’s request to require garbage collectors to clear bins in the most problematic neighborhoods.
The prefect has now ordered the city of Paris’s municipal services to collect the garbage over this weekend, even though the garbage collectors had declared a strike until Monday, March 20 (they announced they would collect bins “at their own pace”).
The waste is being transferred to a town west of Paris, to a facility specializing in waste storage that isn’t on strike, before being sent on to incineration plants, which are still on strike. The hope is that by Monday, March 20, or Tuesday, March 21, Paris will manage to get rid of its trash.
The unions have called for strikes and protests across France on Thursday, March 23, to express their anger over the reform that was pushed through “by force,” which threatens to disrupt transportation (airports, trains, the métro, buses). We still don’t have all the details on Thursday’s strike, March 23.
The weekend of March 17 to 19 is expected to be turbulent in parts of Paris (around the National Assembly, at Place de la République, and so on).
Historical Background to the Current Strike
What’s behind these strikes, and how will they affect your trip to Paris or France?
France is the country of revolution, a country where the monarchy was abolished and civil rights took center stage. The uprisings, riots, debates and strikes that have taken place in France from 1789 to today have pushed governments to enact social laws anchoring the social rights of French citizens, sometimes down to a remarkably fine level of detail.
Many citizens feel that giving up rights is intolerable, especially when it comes to social achievements reached after a hard-fought struggle. To them, giving up these rights feels like regression, and even raises fears of a return to monarchy.
Even though they defend their rights fiercely, society and the world are changing, and reforms are needed. Since 1980, there has been an ongoing debate around pensions, regardless of which government was in power. There have been developments, but no government ever truly dared push through a pension reform the way Macron’s government is doing today.
Two issues currently occupy the French public: the retirement age, and the significant gap in pensions between public sector and private sector workers. One of the main reforms Macron has tried to push through since taking office in 2017 is the one concerning France’s retirement system, the Retraite des Français.
In France, workers all contribute to a public fund, from which pensions are distributed to all French citizens based on the number of years they worked (and contributed to the fund), as well as the difficulty and/or risk involved in their work.
Currently, the average retirement age tops out at 62. In certain professions that are more physically demanding or dangerous, such as construction, railway work, bus driving, sanitation, medical professions, gas and electricity work, policing and even dancing and opera singing, workers can retire at 57 and sometimes even stop working at 52. This benefit is known as a “special regime.”
Macron wants to implement a reform that would raise the legal retirement age to 64 by 2030 and extend the contribution period to the public fund to 43 years starting in 2027, while making sure no one has to work more than 44 years. He also wants to end the special benefits for civil servants and create equality in pensions between them and private sector workers.
The proposed reform is tied to rising life expectancy across the Western world. In France, life expectancy for women stood at 78 in 1980, and 70 for men. By 2022, those numbers had risen to 85 for women and 79 for men. These numbers are expected to keep climbing, meaning people are living many more years.
It’s easy to see that it doesn’t take much to bring the French out into the streets, and they’re planning to block plenty of roads and areas. The right to strike in France is enshrined in law, and the most a worker can lose is 1/30th of their salary for a day on strike. The French are planning to forcefully oppose the reform, hoping the government will take the hint and scrap it.
After countless debates, amendments and changes proposed by the opposition, especially by left-wing and environmental groups, the government is set to vote on the reform by March 26, 2023.
A Few Words About Miriam Edri
Miriam was born in France to parents of Russian/Cuban and Moroccan descent (quite an interesting mix). Over the course of her life she has lived not only in France but also in Israel, Venezuela, the United States and the Caribbean. Miriam has worked in travel and marketing for many years.
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