PARIS — Spring in France is strike season — not that strikes don’t happen at other times of the year, but who wants to strike in wet, cold weather or in the midst of a hot Parisian summer when everyone (strikers included) wants to be on holiday?

René Bodiou, a 75-year-old with a full head of white hair, smiled as he marched with fellow retired union members in the late May sun at a recent protest. I fell in step with him and asked what he thought about this year’s strike season.

“Nowadays, we have people who are too rich,” he said. “In the United States, you do not care so much about equality, but we care about it.”

“It does not mean we all have to have the same amount of money, but we all should get the same respect,” said Mr. Bodiou, a retired civil engineer.