General Strike In France

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31062, 18 May 1966, Page 17

General Strike In France

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, May 17. More than half of France’s 19 million workers stayed at home because of a one-day general strike today and brought the country’s industry and business almost to a standstill.

There was no bread, no newspapers and little or no public transport, gas, electricity, mail, radio or television. It was the biggest concerted trade union action since President de Gaulle took power seven years ago. The three major labour bodies decided on today’s strike after months of wrangling with Government and employers failed to achieve wage increase offers of more than 5 per cent. The unions ordered more than 7m workers in public and private industry to go on strike, and more than 3m others had to stop work in consequence. Army Helps Army lorries were used to help get people to work in the capital, as they did in several other transport strikes this year. The police were on duty—one of their jobs was directing traffic at junctions where lights were not working—but the police unions called on their members to send writ-

ten protests to the Government. Although Air France pilots unexpectedly called off at the last minute their strike scheduled for today, the airline announced that there would be few flights because of the lateness of the pilots' decision. Trade unions scheduled a demonstration in Paris this afternoon at the Place de la Bastille, where the French Revolution started in 1789.