I walked where I was going today which wasn't that far. I didn't realize there was a metro/train strike going on.
I didn't even realize it when a big march started at the Place de la Republique, near where we have been staying. It took me a while to figure out what the march was about. I couldn't read the signs in French. I didn't know what the lettering on the balloons on top of trucks stood for. Someone told me it was against the Ukraine war. Not true.
It turns out it was a march led by unions for wage hikes. This centered around the transportation unions wanting wage hikes. The letter CGT on the balloons stood for the Confederation Générale du Travail (General Confederation of Labor).
I wondered st the time how all these people could be marching during the day. Didn't they have jobs? Well it turns out they were on strike!
There were loud bangs periodically and I honestly thought at first it was the police setting something off to disperse the crowd. People also had flare devices that produced lots of smoke. Apparently it's all part of the march. Lots of singing and chanting. There were thousands of people.
The same kind of march had happened in mid October involving a lot more people. I read that the union head said today that if they didn't get what they wanted, the transport union would go on an indefinite strike bringing the metro/ trains to a grinding halt across Paris.
It really something to see working people out in the streets by the thousands marching for their rights. It's something you never see in the United States.
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November 10, 2022 at 09:10PM
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