Grève = Strike

Metro information announcing the reduction of services for the strike day.

Le droit de grève (right to strike). It is often joked that the national pastime of France is to go on strike. If you don't like something, strike about it. Someone says nasty to you, go on strike. It is the solution to all your woes in France.

In response to the financial crisis, the public sector employees in the fields of transportation and education have decided that to send a message to the government, they would have a day where they would go on strike. It is of no concern to them that by doing so they are inconviniencing thousands of other people who rely on the Metro and RER services to make a living and do their jobs. Yes, this group includes both myself and Mindy.

The best part about the strike is they would not tell anyone until 24 hours before the strike how badly services would be affected. Needless to say, we had to play it safe and reschedule all of out classes from Thursday to either today or Friday. As it turns out, the Metro is only slightly disturbed as most trains will be running at 50% of there regular schedule or better. The RER however is only going to be running 20% of its trains and only during peak times. This really affects me as I need the RER to get to where I teach on Thursdays.

So tomorrow will be an unofficial holiday of sorts here in Paris as we will participate in the strike, although unwillingly, and take the day off.

Not going anywhere on this tomorrow.