French Strikes Illegal Before 8 Days?

Northern Advocate, 14 June 1947, Page 5

French Strikes Illegal Before 8 Days?

(Rec. 11 a.m.) PARIS, June 13. The former Minister of Finance (M. Rene Pleven) has introduced in the National Assembly a bill to make it illegal to declare a strike without at least eight days’ notice. The bill provides that workers must be consulted in secret and a Gov-ernment-supervised vote taken before a strike is declared. After a vote there must be 15 days’ delay before notification and the strike must not begin until at least eight days after. Penalties for non-observance of these conditions include loss of pay and three months’ suspension for throe days’ absence from six, six months’ suspension for eight days' and dismissal for more than 15 days. The Confederation of Labour has announced that it is opposed to legislation making it illegal to declare a strike without eight days’ notice. It also announced that it was prepared to discuss ■ with the Government the whole question of wages and prices.

MORE INDUSTRIAL TROUBLES While the trdns-Continental expresses rolled out of Paris again yesterday at the end of France's railway strike, other big labour unions were preparing to demand from the Prime Minister (M. Ramadier) concessions similar to those which caused the transport hold-up. There are fears of a new strike wave worse than anything that has yet happened in the troubled post-war years.

Several thousand state employees—street cleaners, firemen and administrative workers—will hold a one-day strike today. Postal and telephone employees are threatening to hold a national strike in three weeks' time if their wage demands are not satisfied. All the recent strikes have gained increased pay for the strikers. One M.R.P. (Progressive Catholic) deputy commented that the wage stabilisation programme no longer existed. “The dam has broken,” he said. COMMUNISTS ACCUSED The Communist-dominated Confederation of Labour is waiting until July 1 to see whether prices fall before it takes any official action on the Government’s wage and prices policy. M. Ramadier, meanwhile, has postponed his promised re-examination of wages, to have been made on July 1, until December. He has accused the Communists of deliberately fomenting unrest to try to get back in the Government.

The coalminers will shortly ask for increases. The railways and the coalmines have been nationalised and are working at a loss, so that every penny of increased wages is an additional burden on the Treasury. The amount of £20,000,000 needed to meet the wage increase granted the will absorb the economies introduced in the Budget as well as the cuts in civil expenditure which the Ministry of Finance ordered two months ago. As M. Ramadier is determined to keep the estimated expenditure within the limited of estimated revenue, the Minister of Finance (M. Robert Schuman) is preparing further economy measures, which will be submitted to Parliament soon. M. Ramadier told the National Assembly that the railways strike provided many lessons. There was one above all, namely, that impatience, irritation and anger contributed nothing, and a little reflection before strike action could avoid many difficulties. SERVICES HELD UP

The Paris municipal cleaners' strike held up marriages and funerals. No garbage was collected and libraries, town halls and museums were closed. Police courts were conducted with difficulty.