The Strike Is Over. Long Live The Strike!

We were expecting the end on Monday but in the end it carried on a bit longer as the LKP tried to get various organisations including Medef (the bosses for Carrefour etc) to sign up - unsuccessfully it appears. I hadn't realised when we went to Carrefour last Saturday that we were supposed to be boycotting it - well no one told me! No wonder it was so quiet.

However, the agreement (with 165 points) was signed on Wednesday and the people of Guadeloupe were told to get back to work and in fact work twice as hard as usual to provide the money for the extra €200 a month that the lowest earners in the island will be receiving.

But ending a strike of 44 days isn't all that simple it would seem. The schools have been reopening bit by bit and the pupils returning in dribs and drabs - LissaLou will have to wait to Monday now. As to how they are going to make up all the lost time, well that remains to be seen. Bertie went back to his private lessons on Thursday so it will be nice to see a bit more income again but with all the extra lessons pupils are going to get he may have to jiggle his timetable a lot more.

Carrefour was closed due to its staff striking on Thursday and is again today. Yesterday we had no water and electricity again. Various other shops are still closed and those that are open have bare shelves. We are also wondering how the island's bosses are going to work out who will and won't be paid for not working during this time.

Other signs that Guadeloupe has resumed normal business - the roads are chockablock with cars (I would love to see how the air pollution has been affected over the last 6 weeks) and we went to the (finally open) Post Office and faced a queue of, oh 30 people. Somethings never change!

I am keeping my eyes open to see the hard-earned results of this strike: the price of petrol going down as well as the cost of the 100 most necessary basic items...