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| - A photograph shared on social media in September 2024 allegedly showed French union workers walking through the streets alongside a barbecue fitted to tram tracks during a protest march.
According to one X post, the contraption had been designed to allow demonstrators to "grill sausages while they march."
The picture was posted elsewhere on X alongside another similar photo in January 2023. One such post had amassed more than 7.5 million views as of this writing.
Origin of Photo
A reverse image search led to a November 2018 article on a blog called Euro Gunzel. That site is run by a self-described "Australian railfan" named Marcus Wong, who said the photo was originally shared (archived) to X on May 15, 2018, by a user called @DelegueLata.
Snopes was unable to find an earlier example of the picture being posted online; however we could not confirm whether @DelegueLata took it. We reached out to the X user to confirm whether they captured the photo and will update this article if we receive a response from them. Other X users who shared the picture on May 15, 2018, credited @DelegueLata for it.
A French-to-English DeepL translation of @DelegueLata's 2018 X post read:
So the railway workers built a rolling barbecue that could be adapted to the tramway rails during their protest. They're very good.
Does Photo Show French Union Workers?
Wong noted that the photo was taken during a railworkers demonstration covered by a local news outlet, France 3 Régions (archived). According to the outlet, the protest occurred in Nice, France, on May 14, 2018.
A geolocation of the photo confirmed it was taken in Nice.
A Google translation of the France 3 Régions article read, in part:
Nearly 90% of SNCF [France's national railway company] staff are on strike this Monday in Nice according to the unions. Management also acknowledges a particularly difficult day.
In Nice, a general assembly of SNCF staff took place Monday morning at the initiative of the inter-union near the central station. Around 400 people were present to discuss the social movement.
At the end of the general assembly, a procession of 800 people, according to the unions, marched through Nice to demonstrate against the reform of the SNCF. This procession was made up of SNCF staff and other sectors as well as political activists.
The demonstrators left from the central station, went up Avenue Jean Médecin, to end up in front of the Nice town hall as shown in this report by Nathalie Morin and Yannick Fournigault.
The news outlet also published a video of the demonstration that included a description that, when translated by Google, read:
Around 800 people, SNCF staff and workers from other sectors demonstrated this Monday in Nice against the SNCF reform. The demonstrators briefly blocked the entrance to the town hall.
The rolling barbecue is shown at the 1:03 mark in the video.
Facebook users posted different pictures of the same rolling barbecue on May 14 and 15, 2018. All three of those captions said the photos were taken in Nice.
Therefore, the original photo did show French union workers marching alongside a barbecue that had been fitted to tram tracks during a protest, which is why we have rated this claim as true.
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