FRENCH STRIKES SPREAD

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22376, 13 April 1938, Page 11

FRENCH STRIKES SPREAD

Arms Programme At Standstill

GOVERNMENT MAY TRY

DRASTIC ACTION

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.)

(Received April 12, 5.5 p.m.)

PARIS, April 11

An increase in the stay-in strikes has brought to a standstill the armament programme, adding to the Government’s problems. Forty factories are idle, aggregating 102,000 employees. Thirty-five thousand workers at the Renault factory have joined the “stay-in” strikers. A further extension of the trouble is feared, the leaders of the Metalworkers’ Union having ordered nonstrikers to demand an immediate settlement as to the renewal of collective contracts, which the employers are resisting. The Premier (M. Daladier) will seek unrestricted powers to deal with the economic and financial situation for three months, but judging by the Senate’s attitude, the bill is unlikely to pass.

An emergency meeting of the French Cabinet discussed the extension of stay-in strikes.

The Paris correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the Cabinet is prepared to resort to drastic measures if it is unable to settle the strikes by negotiation. It became evident overnight that the Government’s life will depend on M. Daladier’s ability rapidly .to end the strikes, which now involve nearly 250,000 workers. The political background to the strikes is showing more clearly since the Senate threw out M. Blum’s Finance Bill. Union leaders are not hiding the fact that their policy is aimed to produce political rather than industrial reforms.