The whole debacle started with a proposal by French left-wing president Emmanuel Macron to raise the age required to receive government retirement pension from 62 to 64. Given that you need to be 67 to receive your full social security pension in the United States, I was shocked to hear that this was even an issue. Now I am by no means a French legal expert, so I cannot speak much in depth of the debate on this issue. However, while retirement at 62 seems fanciful to me, I too would be furious if I had been promised it and then the president (who is quite wealthy) proposed taking it from me.
This was the general reaction of the French public, and they expressed their anger in the way that they knew best: strikes. However, French strikes are not quite the same as those seen in America. They are typically the first step of a bargaining process, rather than a last resort. Whereas American unions tend to hold out on declaring a strike in hopes that an agreement will be reached, the French public start with strikes, almost as a reminder to the government or powerful company that they are the ones who truly hold the power, often before negotiations are made. Thus, the moment the retirement reform was proposed, the French had taken to the streets in protest in Paris. This mass public movement overtook the entirety of France, and by January 19, a national strike was declared. Not a single tram was running in the city of Montpellier where I live. Few buses were running and most businesses were closed.
Another difference between French and American strikes that typically occur, is that French strikes have a declared end date. Whatever unions involved will declare a strike for a 24 or 72-hour period, and then business will resume as normal. This was the case at the beginning of the strikes. After a total shutdown on Thursday, everything was back up and running on Friday. However, the reason most strikes in France last a brief predetermined time is because they remind those in power of their place (in service of the people) and lead to successful bargaining and resolution. However, in this case, the French government did not stand down. Thus, another strike was announced the following week, and then the next, but the French government did not stand down, so the protests intensified.
Trash build-up on the streets of Marseille due to the ongoing strikes by workers in the public sector.
Needless to say, the French protest harder than Americans. During national rail strikes, they set up barbeques on the railroad and threw parties. They gathered en masse in every major city center and in front of prefecture buildings from when the sun rose to when it set. They faced riot police with no fear, and in many cases sent them running with nothing more than their voices. Many unions took it even further, with French electricity unions cutting power to Macron’s official residence in Paris, along with several other buildings associated with pro-reform politicians.
Facing immense public scrutiny and a knife-edge vote to pass the retirement reform, on March 16, President Macron decided to push through the reform using Article 49.3 of the French constitution. In essence, this is used in the same manner as an executive order in the United States. It allows the current government to create and enforce a piece of legislation without a vote by the Assemble General, the voting legislative body of the French government.
I figured, given my experience with protests in the United States, that this move by Macron, no matter how objectionable, would be the end of the whole thing. Yet, in contrast to American protests, French strikes don’t seem to lose momentum as they go on. Rather, it seems that resistance to and delay of change only adds fuel to the fire. The first strikes over the retirement reform were in the last days of January. They are still going strong as we enter into April, despite the reforms being pushed through into law.
Blockade of one of the building on the main campus of Université Paul-Valéry in Montpellier, France.
Garbage is piling up on the streets as waste collectors remain on strike. About ¼ of the normal volume of trains and other forms of public transit are running and new flight cancellations are announced daily. Demonstrations are ongoing, with protesters starting bonfires, burning representations of Article 49.3, and blockading government buildings. My host university, Paul-Valéry, had previously been blockaded on several separate instances, with students and other protesters arriving on campus in the early hours of the morning to block entrances with chairs, desks, and construction materials. However, ever since Macron’s passage of the reform via Article 49.3, the campus has been constantly blockaded. There have been several general assembly votes of students, faculty, and administration of the school to try to end the blockade, but in each case, the members of the university have voted to allow the protest to continue.
At the moment, the situation in France continues to hang in the balance. Ongoing strikes and protests are bringing the country to a standstill, yet the government continues forward with the reforms, planning to have them in place by the end of this year. How this conflict will resolve remains unknown. As a pessimistic American, it seemed unlikely to me from the start that the unions and protests would even be able to hold out for long, much less create a real change against the government’s plans. However, I was wrong with my first assumption, so who is to say that I won’t be wrong with my second? After all, the demonstrations have already created such tension that Macron felt he had to push the reform through non-democratic methods, so it is clear that the government is feeling the pressure of the people. The conflict is a fire that is impossible to predict, so we will simply have to wait and see whether it fizzles out or consumes its opposition.