DOCKERS ON STRIKE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 125, 11 March 1950, Page 5

DOCKERS ON STRIKE

FRENCH UNREST CONTINUES HOPES OF SETTLEMENT UPSET <N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, March 10. Marseilles dockers went on strike to-day just as hopes were . growing that France was beginning to emerge from its labour crisis. The Communist-led General'- Workers’ Confederation claimed that the strike would bring 15,000 workers out. Port officials admitted that only 559 dockers reported for wbrk this afternoon. Hopes that the country’s labour unrest had passed its climax had been growing earlier to-day when Paris underground railway and bus workers returned to work. The back-to-work movement made progress at steel plants, but 1000 steel workers are still idle throughout the country. Nearly 20,000 of 30,000 workers at the nationalised Renault motor plant are back on the jqb, but the miners are now holding a ballot on whether to join the strike.

Paris is still short of gas, and key workers have been ordered to return to work or face the possibility Of heavy prison sentences.

Naval technicians and others have been directed into generating stations, and electricity supplies have been maintained throughout most country .areas. ,

The Communist-led trade unions claim that nearly 1,000,000 are idle throughout France, including 600,000 in the metal and car industries. Employers and non-Communist unions say that not more than 290,000 metalworkers are on strike, and not more than 500,000 in all industries.