Happy Strike Day
Yes, that's right, today was the day of the national general strike. For those who haven't been following it, this is all because the government came up with a clever plan. Unfortunately, like many clever plans, this one is blowing up in their faces.
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin thought that making it easier for employers to fire young employees would create more jobs. I don't know enough about the law to know if it will do that or not, but it certainly has created more anger! The youth who were supposed to be helped by it felt they were instead being treated unjustly and that they would become "kleenex" employees: usable and tossable.
The protest grew from the kids to the unions and now over 70% of the French population is against it. A general strike was called to make their voices heard. Over a million of them joined protests today so they were loud and clear. M. de Villepin seems to be holding to his resolve, so I don't know where this will go; but one thing is clear, it ain't gonna help him become president next year!
Normally, these kinds of strikes pass unnoticed in the Possum Kingdom, but we even felt this one here. The middle school (or "college") only had two teachers show up today, so most of the kids didn't bother to go. The primary school didn't seem to have a problem though, which I thought was interesting. And, the library was closed! I must remember to ask Noëlle about that tomorrow.
JM and I had wanted to go to Carcassonne to drop off some copies of my book, which is going to be carried in the Cultura bookstore (FABULOUS bookstore! I'm afraid to go in there, to be perfectly honest), and also to pick up the copy we'd left for "consideration" at the airport. My guess would have been that Cultura wouldn't take them and the airport would, but it has turned out to be the other way around. At any rate, there was no way I wanted to go anywhere near Carcassonne today, as I assume they had demonstrations there. And, the airport was shut down anyway. Glad we hadn't planned on flying anywhere today!
Tomorrow, all should get back to normal. But this is an issue that isn't going to go away. When I read letters in the press, the thing that frightens most people about this new law is that they don't want to start being treated like American employees. Now, that's food for thought.
Ciao for now!
Randy
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin thought that making it easier for employers to fire young employees would create more jobs. I don't know enough about the law to know if it will do that or not, but it certainly has created more anger! The youth who were supposed to be helped by it felt they were instead being treated unjustly and that they would become "kleenex" employees: usable and tossable.
The protest grew from the kids to the unions and now over 70% of the French population is against it. A general strike was called to make their voices heard. Over a million of them joined protests today so they were loud and clear. M. de Villepin seems to be holding to his resolve, so I don't know where this will go; but one thing is clear, it ain't gonna help him become president next year!
Normally, these kinds of strikes pass unnoticed in the Possum Kingdom, but we even felt this one here. The middle school (or "college") only had two teachers show up today, so most of the kids didn't bother to go. The primary school didn't seem to have a problem though, which I thought was interesting. And, the library was closed! I must remember to ask Noëlle about that tomorrow.
JM and I had wanted to go to Carcassonne to drop off some copies of my book, which is going to be carried in the Cultura bookstore (FABULOUS bookstore! I'm afraid to go in there, to be perfectly honest), and also to pick up the copy we'd left for "consideration" at the airport. My guess would have been that Cultura wouldn't take them and the airport would, but it has turned out to be the other way around. At any rate, there was no way I wanted to go anywhere near Carcassonne today, as I assume they had demonstrations there. And, the airport was shut down anyway. Glad we hadn't planned on flying anywhere today!
Tomorrow, all should get back to normal. But this is an issue that isn't going to go away. When I read letters in the press, the thing that frightens most people about this new law is that they don't want to start being treated like American employees. Now, that's food for thought.
Ciao for now!
Randy
1 Comments:
Hi Randy.......so glad our artist group wasn't scheduled to come into the airport on this date.
We'll be there on the 31st and hoping to meet you sometime during our month at CatArt.
Cheryl McClure
By CMC, At 2:51 PM
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