[A-List] France: labour militancy

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

France paralysed by mass walkouts

Jon Henley in Paris
Wednesday November 27, 2002
The Guardian

Tens of thousands of public sector employees staged protest marches around
France yesterday as strikes by air traffic controllers and train drivers
caused chaos at airports, railway and metro stations.

Up to 100,000 people took to the streets of Paris and major provincial
cities such as Marseille, Toulouse, Rennes and Caen as part of a national
walkout by postal, telephone and transport workers, hospital auxiliary
staff, and gas and electricity board employees.

A 32-hour strike by air traffic controllers that started on Monday evening
saw only 22% of scheduled flights landing or taking off from Paris's Charles
de Gaulle airport, while just 17% of flights were maintained at Orly.

With an estimated 50,000 train drivers on strike, rail traffic was disrupted
around the country, while many local bus and metro services were also
paralysed: police said there was no bus service to speak of in Marseille and
Bordeaux. The Paris metro was less hard hit, with traffic reportedly normal
except on two lines.

The protests, over salaries, pension reforms and government privatisation
plans, were called by all France's main trade union federations and are part
of the first big wave of social unrest to engulf the centre-right government
that was elected in June.

They marked a second day of transport havoc in France, after lorry drivers
mounted dozens of barricades on roads around the country on Monday.

That protest seemed to have all but petered out yesterday, however, amid
squabbling among the main truckers' unions and determined police action to
prevent gridlock.

Police said 30,000 marchers filed through Paris's Left Bank, but unions put
the figure closer to 60,000.

Guy l'Hotelier, a retired railway worker on the march, said France's SNCF
rail service - one possible government privatisation target - was better
left in public hands.

"Just look what happened in Britain. Privatisations are dangerous," he said.