STRIKES IN BELGIUM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 156, 17 June 1936, Page 7

STRIKES IN BELGIUM

Repeated Clashes with the Police THREATS TO FIRE TRAMS (Received 17, 10.30 a, in.) BRUSSELS, June 16. A general strike has occurred in the eoat-mining and steel industries. Strikers, in making efforts to prevent the trams running at Liege, repeatedly clashed with the police, who twice charged with drawn sabres. Three police were wounded by pistol shots. Three police were seriously ini r d at Saint Walburge while resisting an attack of 200 miners. The municipality withdrew the trams following the strikers’ threat to set fire to them. “The Times” Brussels correspondent says that the public generally sympathise with the strikers, especially the miners, who have suffered severely in the depression with increased cost of living following the devaluation of the franc. Their aims are similar to the French strikers—namely, a 10 per cent, increase in wages, a 40-hour week, and paid-for annual holidays. An incident precipitating the strike was an employer fining a miner onefifth of a day’s wages for a trivial offence. Twenty-one strikers were arrested at Liege.