STRIKES IN BELGIUM

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 225, 19 June 1936, Page 11

STRIKES IN BELGIUM

Men Expected to Resume Work on Monday

40-HOUR WEEK CONCEDED

By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.

Brussels, June 18.

It is expected that the strikers will resume work on June 22. The employers have conceded a 40-hour week A conference, under the presidency of the Premier (M. Van Zeeland). be tween employers and trade unionists agreed upon a minimum wage and six paid holidays annually. An earlier message stated that the strikes are coming nearer the capital. Five hundred metallurgical employees in the suburb of Ru.ysbroeck are ceasing work. The authorities announce that for eigners participating in agitations will be expelled. Liege resembles a beleaguered city The tram and taxi services have been stopped, and the use of bicycles is prohibited in order to frustrate the speedy assemblage of strikers. The Liege strike took a grave turn when strikers attempted to raid an arms factory. The police drove them off and arrested 15. Gangs attempted to stop traffic in the city, and interfered with pedestrians, necessitating repeated police charges. The strikes are spreading elsewhere, and all transport services with the exception of the railways are threatened. Twelve thousand textile workers ar Ghent have quitted the looms, and factories in the Verviers area are ceasing work. The heavy industries at Charleroi are at a standstill. FIGHTING IN STREETS Marseilles Disorders Paris, June 17. The strike situation at Marseilles has taken an ugly turn owing to its having assumed a political complexion with the intervention of the Jeunesses Patriotes and other Right organisa tions. Numerous clashes occurred with the Front Populaire. Youths of the Right and of the Left, wearing tricolour cockades or red brassards, and shouting war cries, marched along the Cannehiere. Reinforcements joined both sides, and fighting began. Passersby left trams and public vehicles ami joined in, holding up all traffic. Gardes Mobiles separated the combatants, but the bands reformed elsewhere and resumed hostilities.

Rioters of the Kight took refuge ic a disreputable gambling house, six of whose habitues barred the gate and prepared to defend the building with revolvers. Members of the Front Populaire attacked the premises. Gardes Mobiles intervened, but the crowd exchanged missiles and refused to disperse. The Senate has passed Bills permitting indemnities to civil servants, exempting ex-serviccmen's pensions from taxation, and granting paid holidays for workers.

Metropolitan strikers who arc still idle number 50.000 to 60,000. The situation is worse at Lyons, St. diamond, Angers, La Rochelle, Le Havre and Mulhouse.

It is rumoured that the Government is contemplating converting stocks to q 3 per cent, basis, and consequently tbe Bourse has marked up 3 per cent, rentes.

POSITION IN MOROCCO

Casablanca, June 17.

The sugar workers have resumed work, but the metal works and paint works are idle. The Council of National Defence has approved of the establishment by the Resident-General, M. Peyrons, of an 8-hour day and a minimum wage for native workers.