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Strikes


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Well, there we are, the strikes begin today, railways, Air France, and refuse collection with Carrefour still ongoing as France seems to continue its unchanging furrow.

And there are transport workers, civil servants and Bobo knows who else in the wings.

A direct challenge to the government of the country yet again and a gigantic piss ing contest between the unions involved. The most militant, the CGT had steadily been losing ground to the more moderate CFDT but now sees a chance to gain its number one position again by being hyper militant.

Will Macron stand up to them, will he bend? Thus far he has not but this is a big challenge. He does have the support of the country I think but for how long.

Are we inconvenienced, well, personally, yes, as Eurostar seems to be affected which is a bug ger. And a transport strike might be tricky.

State of emergency, well, don’t write it off, as Macron is determined to drag the public sector into a new era.
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Interesting number, ALBF.

As an aside, the unions have been trying to reduce the loss of pay of striking members by counting their paid rest days as part of the strike time - as they cannot work or at rest, they strikers should be paid for the day, thus only losing two days pay and not three.

But the management has said no. It will probably go to court.

The big winners, of course, are the coach companies, created by Macron and, thus far, a roaring success, I believe.
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I have heard that public workers in hospitals too though I am not sure who would be included.  Some kitchen staff in our local respite care place went on strike recently.

I have a day surgery intervention next week but it's on Monday so, selfish as it may sound, I so want it to go ahead! 

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[quote user="alittlebitfrench"]Did you know Wooly..."A female moderator on another French forum told me to stop stalking her as it was a creepy thing for me to be doing. Also, get this, the owner of the French forum gave me a good slap and politely told me to 'f' off and stop posting. What's the matter with these people? Anyway, I'm back here now and will soon settle back in".   [/quote]

My italics quote.
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I find it very scary that you picked up on that Cajal !!! Given it was all taken down within the space of an hour. Are you stalking me ? lol. If you are stalking me than you probably know that I have posted on other forums today. None of which I have ever be banned from.

Hey, ALBF is not banned from the site. I banned myself. Although, I can still log in ???? They did not get the hint.

I DO NOT tolerate personal remarks on a forum which should have been taken down. Too many chiefs and not enough indians in blue. It is amazing how becoming a mod on a forum goes to peoples head.

Besides, I warmed up their forum for them and it is now up and running. It is their destiny now.

Chill everyone.
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Thie article would seem to give the lie to some of the reasons given for the rail strike:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/economie/le-scan-eco/le-vrai-du-faux/2018/04/04/29003-20180404ARTFIG00002-ouverture-du-rail-a-la-concurrence-ce-qui-est-vrai-ce-qui-est-faux.php
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IF I was a gambling woman, I would hazard a guess that Macron cannot win these battles.

Purely judged on all the Presidents and PM's I have seen, who have failed miserably once all the greves start.

Ofcourse I could be wrong, I often am, but it always seems that if some things can get through, then the last straw is reached and everyone has to suffer.

I think the most offensive strikers are Air France pilots. In comparison to other pilots in Western Europe are the best paid, AND do the least hours (selon french tv news).

And from my early days in France, just adored embetting those who tried to be loyal to french companies and booked with them. I learned a long long time ago to avoid Air France, and shall continue to do so.

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Come on you must remember what deGaulle said.....that France was ungovernable?!

I was never in a strike, but I did participate in a huge manif in Paris once, that would have been in 1994. It was said that there were a million of us.... there were lots of us, that is for sure, so who knows. I am glad I went.
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At some point, the French people will have to make a choice.

Chatting to the locals here, they have little sympathy for rail staff who have employment terms they can only dream of. But they dislike the Parisian government even more.

So despite the determination and good intentions of Macron, it would not surprise me at all if he ends up being dumped like predecessors who have tried to change things that are considered to be central to French culture. Of course, this is a rural community with a tiny population and although they consider their way of life more important than the national economy (which they feel is more relevant to Paris and the large cities), perhaps the towns will outvote the villages when the crunch comes. Who knows?
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