Get set for Black Thursday in Poitou-Charentes

Description:

Widespread disruption is expected tomorrow due to a national strike in France, which looks set to be widely supported. Schools and transport services are expected to be worst hit, but public services will also suffer as public sector workers join the disgruntled masses on the streets of towns and cities across France.

The mass demonstration being referred to as ‘Black Thursday,' is the result of a coming-together of all major unions across France. It calls for all those currently affected by the financial crisis to join the protest against President Sarkozy's government.

 

Workers from both the public and private sectors will be joined by pensioners and the unemployed to demand that the government takes urgent action, by stopping planned public sector job cuts, and helping increase the spending power of ordinary people.

 

Education will be badly hit, with many of the key towns in Poitou-Charentes unable to offer a ‘service minimum'. It is estimated that around 70% of teachers could walk out, double the number that have supported previous action.  In Charente-Maritime some 409 of the 538 schools will have to invoke the service-minimum, as the 25% threshold has already been breached. In La Rochelle, 17 schools are expected to be closed, 27 partially closed and just 2 fully open.

 

In Deux-Sevres 35 of the 40 schools in Niort will be forced to offer the service-minimum, while in Melle 3 out of the 4 schools will be affected. In Thouars none of the 4 schools will open, and the service-minimum is not guaranteed. In Saint-Maixant l'Ecole the service-minimum is assured. Most of the teachers at the 13 schools in Bressuire plan to walk out.  In Charente, demonstrations will take place in the morning in Angouleme, with further protests planned for the afternoon in Cognac. Gatherings are expected across all of the regions major towns.

 

Local bus services are expected to be hit, and access to town centre services is likely to be disrupted in any case by the planned marches and demonstrations. On the rails SNCF estimates that only 40% of local services will operate, although around 60% of TGV services are likely to run as normal. La Poste expects many of its staff to walk out, with recent protests against the planned sell-off being well supported. Some 70% of flights into and out of France are likely to be cancelled.

 

On a national level, socialists have seized the opportunity to attack President Sarkozy, and many from the party will be side-by-side with protestors up and down the country. While the president has been keen to press-on with public sector reforms and the liberalising of the labour market, his party has so far been careful to adopt a more conciliatory tone in the approach to the protest, recently deferring the planned education reforms.

 

Some of his right-wing allies however have not held back, with Laurence Parisot, head of the French employers federation (MEDEF) quoted as saying "we all agree on the diagnosis, we are going through a crisis of unequalled proportions" she continued "but it is bad news that France's only response should be this kind of hodge-podge, blanket protest. It is as if a sailor caught up in a storm started shouting at the weather, instead of holding the tiller."

 

For TER and TGV rail enquiries call 08 05 90 36 35
For Transilien enquiries call 08 05 70 08 05

Craig McGinty's excellent website ThisFrenchLife highlights three interesting links for detailed national updates on the strike (in French).