FRENCH TRADE UNIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1943, Page 5

FRENCH TRADE UNIONS

WORKING AGAINST THE NAZIS

Something of the activities of French trade unions under difficulties has been told by “La Vie Ouvriere,” a French clandestine paper just received in England.

Many strikes and demonstrations have occurred, engineered by trade union members, whose numbers are steadily increasing. One union which last year had 300 members, now has 4,000. Another group has increased from 60 to 1,200. The unions are of course working in secret. Fluctuations within the unions, says the clandestine paper,, are decreasing, and members are waiting for the unions to be purified and revived. Strikes occurred in Perigny, in railway workshops at Dijon, Sotteville, Amiens, Caen and Chambery, in the Schneider factories at Anzin, in the sawmills at Blqncmisseron, in the Nord, in the shipyards and in the Renault factories at Nantes. Action has also been reported from Lyons, Grenoble, Brive, Tulle, Limoges, TarasconsurAriege, Perpignan, St. Etienne, and Theil.

At Sartrouville, a model new aircraft was destroyed. Francs-tireurs damaged the signal system of the airport of Le Bourget and caused a black-out for a whole night. In Asnieres, a suburb of Paris, they confiscated ration cards and gave them to patriots. This was done in broad daylight.