WORKERS’ LOT IN FRANCE

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21806, 11 June 1936, Page 13

WORKERS’ LOT IN FRANCE

EFFECT OF RECENT STRIKES WAGES RAISED TO BRITISH LEVEL DIFFICULTIES OF OVER-VALUED CURRENCY 'UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPtRIGHT.) (Received June 10, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, June 2 The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says the raising of wages to a level more closely approaching the Western European standard illustrates the danger of trying to achieve social progress in a country where the currency is seriously over-valued. The trades* unions have won a sweeping victory, but have not got much more than the British working man has received for years. French workers for years have been employed in premises which British factory inspectors would not tolerate. The wage advance was won only after years of constant agitation, and sullen acquiescence in a life on the subsistence level yet, in spite of the bitterness, of the struggle, the strikers maintained perfect order, sweeping the factories, painting the floors, repairing the plumbing, and even taking up collections for the repair of a plateglass window accidentally brokenNo outsiders were allowed to intervene, 170 women strikers in a oneprice store repelling _ with a fire hose some young fascists who attempted to enter. The Paris correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” says it i* difficult for outsiders to realise the enormous effect of Monday’s agreement on the working class. The truth is that the bulk cf employers, for the first time, agreed to sign a general agreement with qualified representatives of the entire work* ing class, the patrons thereby in the eyes of the workers abandoning their sacred prerogatives and placing themselves on a footing of equality with the proletariat. The agreement has, inter alia, ended the practice whereby certain employers could openly refuse to employ union labour, socialists, or communists.