STRIKES IN FRANCE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 117, 2 March 1950, Page 5

STRIKES IN FRANCE

ENTIRE ECONOMY THREATENED GOVERNMENT WORKING ON NEW BILL (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.50 a.in.) PARIS, March 1. French Trade Unions claimed > to-day that 300,000 workmen are idle in a strike movement that , threatens to paralyse France’s en- : tire economy. ! • The French Cabinet, which is working on a Bill to change the text of the constitutional article on workers’ rights' to strike, met to-day, but an announcement issued, after the meeting threw little light on the situation. It is reported that the new Bill will outlaw purely political strikes, and the go-slow and rolling strikes which have plagued . France’s economy in recent months. About 180,000 Paris engineering and motor-car workmen are on strike, and the situation is more or less static. Leaders of Paris bus and underground railway employees, who have voted to strike, met this afternoon to decide what action to take. The Government has offered transport workers a general wage increase of 5 per cent., but the men have rejected this as inadequate. , The Government has made preparations to rush an emergency fleet of 3000 private buses and' lorries into Paris within three hours if the men strike.

The Government is also prepared to use troops and naval ratings- to keep power stations and gasworks going in case of strikes in these industries, both of which are nationalised. .

Discontent is also increasing in the building industry,' the ports, mines, bank and insurance companies, asd textile, chemical and paper industries.

Workers in State-owned theatres haye also decided to strike, but no date has yet been fixed.