Parisian Strikes: Student Opinion

Paris is a beautiful city. The architecture, historical landmarks, character, and the light at dusk shimmering over the Seine River fascinates the eye. I had the chance to visit this city firsthand two weeks ago with my mother, and I, too, was caught up in the beauty of my surroundings. My mom told me two days prior to my 5 a.m. flight that she got me an extra ticket to go to Paris with her. She had been asked to be the keynote speaker at a conference there, and invited me to come along. I was ecstatic to go on this adventure with her, especially because I knew I would get an insiders view of the retirement strikes going on in Paris.

The French by government, led by President Sarkozy, recently passed a law increasing the age of retirement by 2 years. Partial retirement was age 60 before this law, and is now 62, and full retirement went from age 65 to 67. I interviewed many Parisians of different backgrounds, ages, and occupations, to get a sense of how the society felt about the strikes. The majority of the people I spoke to said that the strikers were acting unnecessarily rowdy and causing problems for the transportation systems, tourism, and business in the city. It was hard for tourists like my mother and I to get around with the bus drivers all on strike and half of the metro lines temporarily unavailable. This lack of transportation detracted tourism and business, which are two main sources of income for the government.

A Tunisian man in his mid 30s who immigrated to Paris a few years ago said he was not at all sympathetic with the strikers. He told me, “I think the strikers are being selfish and spoiled. I can’t retire because I am not a legal citizen here, so I will have to work until the day I die. I would give up anything to be able to retire when I am 67.”
I also talked to quite a few taxi drivers. I thought getting their perspectives would be interesting, since taxi drivers were the one form of transportation whose workers were not going on strike. For the most part, the cab drivers were sympathetic to the strikers, but they understood that the French economy is declining, and money needs to be increased somehow. A young French taxi driver said, “Many of us buy our own taxi licenses after a few years. With the licenses, you become independent from the government and you can retire whenever you want to. I bought my own license, so I am not too worried about the retirement plan.”

In contrast, I met a woman who was the owner of a baby shop in an expensive neighborhood in Paris. She told me that she personally has no problem with retiring at 67, because all she has to do is sit behind a counter and greet customers. But she did have tremendous sympathy for manual workers who have to lift heavy objects or are involved in other strenuous activities, because working until the age of 67 could damage their health severely.

From all the interviews I conducted, I realized that my view on the retirement issue had changed drastically throughout my stay in Paris. Before leaving, I assumed the strikers were quite just in their protest, because everyone wants to retire early and deserves this right. But after hearing both points of view, my opinion has changed. Now I think that the strikers are being unreasonable. The partial retirement age is 62 (which is not extremely old), and those who retire then get 80 percent retirement from the government. That’s a generous amount of money for a partial salary, especially since the French government is declining. I think the French protestors need to take a step back and think of all the less fortunate people who have no retirement plan and need to work much longer than 62 or 67. All in all, I enjoyed my stay in Paris immensely, and was quite interested to learn more about retirement and politics in a foreign country.

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Hannah Gottlieb-Graham

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