French Vocabularly Lesson #129: "En Greve"

Repeat after me, class: Je suis en greve.... I am on strike.

Good. Ok, class, now follow me -- we're going to stand out in front of the school, shouting insults at the principals office and drinking wine. This is an imporant part of your training to become a worker in a French factory.

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The big news this week was that the hourly folks at the company I'm supporting went out on strike. This was a bit confusing -- their annual contract is not up until the end of the year, so what gives?

I've since learned that labor unions operate much differently over here -- there is much more control at the local level (e.g. much less control), and folks can walk out any time, over any issue. Your buddy got written up for being late to work? No problem: tell the guys to put down their tools until management apologizes. Don't like the way your manager talked to your team during today's crew meeting? Easy-peasy: go invite the rest of the lads to stand in the parking lot until the manager grovels a bit.

Most of these actions only last a few hours, or at most, a day or two.

This was a bit different... or so it seemed.

A few weeks ago, seven or eight guys from the Prototype Shop met with their manager to ask why they had not received the cash bonuses that Assembly Shop guys were given last month. (I wish to all heaven that I knew how much money we're talking about here -- I think the bonuses in question were on the order of $150 per person. Small potatoes.)

I'm not sure what the manager said, but the Prototype guys weren't satisfied, so they de-camped to a spot across the street, painted a few banners ("Honey, have you seen the sheets from the guest room?") and set up a card-table and barbeque. Each morning for a couple of weeks, I'd drive past these guys, my windows up and radio blaring, and give them a friendly wave (like some nobleman, deigning to acknowledge the unwashed masses while passing through town in his coach-and-four.) Weird, I thought.

So I was quite surprised last Tuesday to walk out at lunch time and discover that the small troupe had grown to over two hundred, and they were standing in the road, milling about, slowing traffic, etc.

It turns out that the Assembly guys got to talking with the Prototype guys, and realized that altough they had received bonuses, they had not received the salary increase that the Prototype team was given back in January. I assume they did some quick calculation and realized, a) the company is in a tough spot right now -- way behind schedule with some critical orders yet to be processed, and b) the weather is excellent and c) italian sausages and boxed wine are on sale at the supermarket across the street...

You do the math: they had no choice but to join their proletarian brothers at the barricades. (Please que the soundtrack to Les Miserables.)

At frist, we were told that the strike would not last long... a day or two. But it was a problem, since the stikers were blocking access to all the gates -- thus, although there were a few non-union workers still inside building seats, they could neither deliver them or receive parts for the next batch.

The strike continued through the week -- at first, the company refused to negotiate. The head guy was out of town (as he often is), and it seemed to me like the managers left behind were reluctant to take action. But as the week wore on, things became more intense.

On Wednesday, the strikers stacked wooden pallets in front of the gates, and built a fire in one of the drive-ways. We could drive past, but only if you were willing to nudge folks out of the way.

On Thursday, about 150 strikers occupied the lobby of the administration building, whistling, shouting and using a bullhorn to make a general racket. Late in the day, the managers had to call in the cops to keep peace while the non-union workers (and folks who had crossed the line) left the premises. Apparently, there had been one incident in which a contract laborer got roughed up.

On Friday, they were back, and bolder, occupying a few conference rooms, and over-turning chairs and tables. They had painted slogans on the road leading to the Admin Building, and replaced the company flag with their own. Our team got a phone call at 6pm saying, "Time to go... the cops are here and you need to leave now."

One aside: on Friday afternoon, I spoke with Francois who is the number two guy at the company. I expressed sympathy for his situation, and asked if there was anything the our team could do to help. He replied in his good, but not perfect, English, "No, but I want to make sure you are safe... some of the strikers are very... very... ummm..." He hesitated and I began offering words: passionate? angry? frustrated? "No," he replied, "Drunk."

On Monday, things were even worse. The strikers occupied the admin building at the end of the day, this time bringing their BBQ and boxes of wine inside. Later that night, I'm told, they physically blocked Francois from leaving the building, in effect, holding him and three other directors hostage until about mid-night.

So where are the cops in all this? The strikers are trespassing, vandalizing company property, holding people against their will, for Pete's sake! Also, I learned from the Airbus guys, it's illegal for strikers to block access to the factory. So what the heck? Bring on the gendarmes!

On Tuesday, the managers decided to close the company before things got totally out of hand. Our team set up shop in a local conference center / monastary, and took advantage of the time to re-set our plans and do a bit of team building. Eric (the boss) would get updates a few times a day, and brief us on the latest developments.

During Wednesday and Thursday, there were legal hearings -- the company suing the union for breach of contract and illegal acts preventing the operation of the buisness. The union counter-sued, claiming that by closing the facility, they were denying their members the right to go back to work (!!!!!!).

Being American, I was shocked when I heard that the courts ruled against the company on all counts -- and ordered them to resume operations. When the company requested support from the local police, they were told to take it up with a different judge... which they did on Thursday.

So on Friday, the gendarmes were on-site, and the company called the truckers in and cleared the piles of stuff blocking the gates. We were asked to stay away, but I'm told that things went okay -- it was raining, so maybe the strikers had poor turn-out; also, it was early in the day, so folks were not yet drunk enough to tangle with semi-trailers.

By the end of the day, the team was back in our offices -- the strikers still outside, but operations were underway. We gathered at my house for a BBQ / boxed wine festival of our own that night, and Eric had a call around 11pm saying that the strike was over. Still not sure of the terms, but we're back to work on Monday.

I imagine, though, that the problems are just beginning. Post-strike emotions will run high, with reprisals and recriminations against those who crossed the line. The management team is not especially assertive during normal operations, and I fear for what might take place, performance-wise, during the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.