'When strikes threaten French summer arts festivals...'

Avignon Festival, France. Photo source:http://www.festival-avignon.com/fr/

What happens when you ask a non-francophile about a strike/s in France during summers? His response, most likely would be something like: ‘Bon, ban….C’est normal, n’est-ce pas?

Let us go to the news:

‘Strikes threaten French summer arts festivals’ screams a headline. But the strike this time is not the taxi and the metro strike but something akin to the French love for culture.

“France’s busy summer arts calendar has been thrown into disarray by a strike protesting proposed reforms to the country’s unique system of subsidies for unemployed artists and technicians. In cities like New York or Los Angeles, artists struggling to make ends meet often tend bar or wait tables to scrap by.

In France, however, many arts and entertainment workers on both creative and technical ends of the spectrum are spared the necessity of a “day job”: as long as they fulfill certain requirements (notably the ability to prove they have been paid for 507 hours of work for their craft over the last 10 months), the government offers compensation and social protections during periods of unemployment… …”

Please click at the link below to read the full article from France24: http://www.france24.com/en/20140613-strikes-france-summer-arts-festivals/