Day 18 - The French On Strike

The last 3 days have had French 'public sector' employees on strike. So I rock up to the train station this morning and they decide to have another day of strikes. So the trains that normally run every 15-20 minutes, have been reduced to 4 all day.

Putting on my tourist hat for a moment, this is so damn frustrating. Not only do you have problems doing anything, but you can't find out about it. I tried checking the internet before I left the villa, but nothing. On top of the 'dissatisfaction' I've experienced with my Eurail pass, it becomes pretty much useless when no trains are running.

So what are they striking about? From what I can gather, they have very favourable working conditions (up until last year, if they went on strike, they actually got paid for not working). As a member of the EU, they have to change this working conditions to be more inline with common principles of the EU. So naturally they are being dragged kicking and screaming to change.

On February 5th, more strikes are planned as they want to water down the current law which means no employee can work more than 35 hours a week. Australia has one the highest level of unpaid overtime in the world (as I'm sure many of my working professional friends in Australia can vouch for). I just can't comprehend Australia having a 35hour legal working week - that is how companies survive in Australia - danggling the carrot so you work longer/harder and not ask for extra pay - imagine if they couldn't do that.