PARIS STRIKE ENDED

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 December 1937, Page 7

PARIS STRIKE ENDED

GOVT.’S FIRMNESS TELLS

CAPITAL AGAIN NORMAL [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] LONDON, December 30. The Paris correspondent of the British United Press says that the union leaders announced at 4.30 a.m. that the French transport and municipal Strike was settled; and that -work was being resumed in the morning. According to the Paris correspondent of the “Daily Mail,” M. Chautemps promised to concede the strikers’ demands. “It is our biggest victory,” declared the leader of the men. The committee of the public services and trades unions issued a statement to the people of Paris giving the reasons for the strike. The committee emphasises that it limited its demands as far as it possibly could. It had repeatedly drawn the attention of the Government to the situation. In referring to the measures provided to ensure the distribution of gas, power, and water, the statement says that the unions did everything possible not to cause inconvenience to the general public. “It is not against us, who are only claiming the right to live, that the Government must act, but against the speculators who have raised their prices to such a scandalous degree that the whole population has been once more reduced to poverty.”

DEMANDS GRANTED? (Recd. Dec. 31, Noon). i PARIS, December 30'. The strike leaders have issued a communique, stating that the Govern* ment acceded to their demands, granting the workers the same treatment as civil servants. PUBLIC UNSYMPATHETIC. (Recd. December 31, 1 p.m-j PARIS, December 30. The population, on turning out for work, was surprised to find the strike settled. The city soon began to resume its normal appearance.

The strike leaders, during the conference, realised' that the public generally was unsympathetic. The first break came, at 4 a.m., when naval and military engineers were actually en route to Paris, to take over the services.

The representatives of the General Confederation of Labour, following an interview with the Socialist Ministers, decided that they had received sufficient guarantees to propose to the strfee delegates that work should be resumed. The delegates called off the strike before 5 a.m.

M. Chautemps maintained ■ a. firm attitude to the last, and refused to see any of the strike leaders. The strike of private transport workers continues. Soldiers are bringing food to the market, and delivering newspapers to the wholesalers.

DISPUTES ELSEWHERE. ' (Received December 31, 3 p.m.) PARIS, December 30. While Paris is back to' normal, several other strikes occurred in the Paris region and- elsewhere. Workers occupied the gas station at Nanterre. Mobile guards went to the scene to compel evacuation, but the strikes at the . Goodrich Tyre Company, Colombes, are unsettled. Port workers at Rouen are still out. Eleven hundred men at the Anzin coal mines, near Valenciennes, struck in protest against the dismissal of three colleagues, because they : left work , twenty-five minutes too early to see a football match. There is some mystery about the terms under which the men in 'Paris resumed. r So far no official statoment is forthcoming from the Government or municipality. It would appear that the -workers won a complete victory. U.S.A. CONVICTIONS LOS ANGELES, Decembef 29. The first conviction of sit-down strikers to be recorded in the country is reported in the case of twepty-two Douglas Factory workers. They were sentenced to pay fines totalling 5,400 dollars, or serve its equivalent in gaol at the rate of three dollars a day. They were found guilty of conspiring forcibly to detain the Santa Monica plant.