Update on French Strike (fwd)

["Bryan A. Alexander" <bnalexan@xxxxxxxxx>]

fyi!



Bryan Alexander
Department of English
University of Michigan
**********************

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 22:13:59 -0500
From: Managarm@xxxxxxx
To: bnalexan@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Update on French Strike (fwd)

What's the French for ninety? I've drawn a blank.--SK
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Strikers Pile Pressure on France's Defiant Juppe

By Paul Taylor
Reuter

PARIS (Dec. 5) - A battle of wills between French public service workers and
conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppe reached a new peak Tuesday with more
strikes and mass demonstrations and a left-wing onslaught in parliament.

Braving freezing cold and snow showers, tens of thousands of strikers rallied
in Paris to protest Juppe's overhaul of the heavily indebted welfare system
with higher taxes, health cost controls and later retirement for public
employees.

Juppe told parliament on Nov. 15 that among other proposed reforms, public
sector workers would have to work 40 years for a full pension instead of 37
1/2 years, triggering the protest movement. The reforms are part of Chirac's
new drive to cut the total public deficit to three percent of growth by 1997
to meet the criteria for joining a single European currency.

Protesters banged on drums, blew trumpets and exploded firecrackers as they
set off from the Place de la Republique in central Paris.

Braving freezing cold and snow, they headed for the strike-bound Gare Saint
Lazare rail station several miles away, chanting "Juppe resign" and "Together
we will win."

But Juppe, unbowed, vowed Tuesday he would stick to his plans to reform the
country's social security system.

"Yes, France can and must embark boldly on the road to reforms which have
been delayed too long," he told parliament in a debate on a Socialist
no-confidence motion. "That's why I can calmly confirm to you: I will
maintain my reform projects."

The strikes, which are paralyzing the French capital, reached a new peak
Tuesday, with new sectors joining the stoppage. For the eighth consecutive
day, there were no buses, underground Metro or RER express commuter trains.

Many marchers voiced anger at the abrupt way the reforms were announced and
accused Juppe of scheming behind the public's back and then circumventing
parliament to implement the reforms.

"They are trying to pass their laws by decree, it's undemocratic," said Irene
Medvedev, a primary school teacher.

Trade unions said there were 160,000 marchers in Paris and one million
nationwide. The police said there were 32,000 protesters in Paris and offered
no national figure.

There were also huge demonstrations in provincial cities __ at least 50,000
in Toulouse, 26,000 each in Bordeaux and Rouen, 17,000 in Marseille, 16,000
in Nantes and 12,000 in Le Mans __ where the 12-day-old protest was beginning
to bite.

The protests ended in violence in Paris, where riot police intervened to
disperse about 500 youths who overturned cars, and in the western city of
Nantes, where several hundred students, some hurling gasoline bombs, battled
riot police firing teargas. Seven policeman were injured during the clashes.

However, despite the unions' appeal for the strike to spread beyond the
public sector on this "day of action," there was little sign of the movement
catching on in private companies.

Financial markets, unsettled in recent days by the prospect of a drawn-out
conflict, were heartened Tuesday by the government's apparent determination
to stick to its guns.

The French franc nudged up to 3.4575 per German mark from Monday's five-week
low of 3.4835 and the stock market index closed 2.25 percent up on the day
after a six-day slide.

However, the Force Ouvriere union leader Marc Blondel said the strikes would
go on until the welfare plan was scrapped, and in a sign that he was ready
for a long battle, he launched a public subscription to compensate rail
strikers for lost pay.

"I promise to fight to the bitter end," he said.

Government spokesman Alain Lamassoure warned that the strikes could slam a
brake on consumer spending, slow the economy further and thus jeopardize that
goal.

As the strike spread to schools, cut postal services and disrupted the state
telephone firm France Telecom and the EDF electricity utility, public
frustration began to boil over.

In the first reported incident since the unrest began, a man drove his car
into a group of protesting strikers in the Paris suburb of Cergy-Pontoise,
injuring one person, police said.




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