NEW STRIKES LOOM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22356, 14 June 1947, Page 5

NEW STRIKES LOOM

FRENCHJJNIONS HIGHER WAGE CLAIMS BURDEN ON TREASURY (10 a.m.) PARIS, June 13. While the trans-contincntal expresses rolled out of Paris again yesterday at the end of France’s railway strike, other big labour unions were preparing to demand concessions similar to those which caused a nation-wide transport hold-up from the Premier, M. Ramadier. Observers fear that the new strike wave will be worse than anything that has yet happened in the troubled postwar years. 24-Hour “Warning” Walk-out Municipal employees, including street cleaners, hospital workers and undertakers, commenced a 24-hour “warning” strike which the Federation of Public Employees called to draw the Government’s attention to claims for wage increases. The underground and bus services were not affected. The strike was declared on a national basis, but public employees in Calais and Angers continued to work. Postal and telephone employees threaten a national strike in three weeks’ time if their wage demands are not satisfied. All the recent strikes gained increased pay for the strikers. One M.R.P. deputy commented that the wage stabilisation programme no longer existed. “The dam has broken,” he added. The Communist-dominated Confederation of Labour is waiting until July 1 to see whether prices will fall before it takes any official action on the Government’s wage and prices policy. M. Kamadier, meanwhile, has postponed his promised re-examination of wages from July 1 to December and has accused the Communists of deliberately fomenting unrest to try to get back in the Government. Cost of Railway Wage Rises

The £20,000,000 which is needed to meet the wage increase in the French railways will absorb the economies introduced in the Budget as well as .cuts in civil expenditure which the Minister of Finance ordered two months ago. As M. Ramadier is determined to keep the estimated expenditure within the limits of the estimated revenue, the Minister of Finance is preparing further economy measures which will be submitted to Parliament soon. The coal miners will shortly ask for increases. Both the railways and coal mines have been nationalised and are working at a loss, so that every penny of increased wages is an additional burden on the Treasury.