French railmen to end strike, claim victory (fwd)

[Chegitz Guevara <mluziett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti
personal homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett
political homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett/chegitz.html

A curse on the judges, the coppers and screws | Who tortured the
innocent, the wrongly accused, | For the price of promotion | And justice
to sell | May the judged be their judges when they rot down in hell

The Pogues, "Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 16 Dec 95 09:35:37 -0800
From: Neighborhood Queen <clyde@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Multiple recipients of list <riot-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: French railmen to end strike, claim victory

French railmen to end strike, claim victory
a1734LBY468reulb
r i BC-FRANCE-STRIKES   12-15 0745
^BC-FRANCE-STRIKES 5THLD (SCHEDULED, PICTURE)@
 ^French railmen to end strike, claim victory@
 (Adds Bergougnoux resignation accepted, rail forecasts)
    By Paul Taylor
    PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuter) - Their leaders declaring victory, a
majority of striking French rail workers voted on Friday to
return to work, opening the way for an end to France's longest
public transport stoppage in a decade after 22 days.
    The strike forced conservative Prime Minister Alain Juppe to
scrap a plan to streamline the loss-making SNCF state railways
and to promise not to touch generous public sector retirement
schemes he had sought to change.
    But he did not back down on core welfare reforms instituting
new taxes and health cost controls to cut public deficits and
help qualify France for a single European currency from 1999.
    Communist CGT union leader Louis Viannet declared: ``The
rail workers' victory in imposing their sectoral demands on the
government...is a textbook proof of the force which workers'
unity and union unity brings.''
    He called for further action in other sectors to force the
government to withdraw Juppe's welfare reform plan, but the
signs were that the strike was also crumbling in the RATP Paris
transit system and the state power and telecommunications firms.
    The prospect of an end to the strike was greeted with relief
by footsore Paris commuters who endured three weeks of monster
traffic jams, long walks or bicycle rides with stoicism and a
new-found, through probably ephemeral, solidarity.
    ``A majority has decided to suspend the strike while
remaining vigilant and mobilised for other actions, including
mass demonstrations on Saturday,'' the CGT rail union said.
    The non-partisan Force Ouvriere, the other union leading the
action, confirmed that most workers had voted to start work
again on Sunday or Monday, after Saturday's mass protest against
Juppe's welfare reforms.
    The French franc, buoyed by a Bank of France interest rate
cut, traded at 3.44 to the deutschemark, its highest level since
the start of the crisis. But French shares ended lower as
investors fretted about the economic cost of the long stoppage.
    SNCF chairman Jean Bergougnoux tendered his resignation on
Friday ``at the moment when rail traffic is starting to resume''
after Juppe disowned him by criticising an absence of dialogue
between management and unions.
    Transport Minister Bernard Pons accepted Bergougnoux'
resignation, but asked him to stay on until a successor was
nominated. A statement said Pons thanked Bergougnoux and assured
him that the government did not blame him for the crisis.
    Even before the rail strikers voted, trains had resumed
running in some parts of the country and public transport was
slowly coming back to life in the gridlocked French capital.
Pons predicted trains would be running nationally by Tuesday.
    There were scenes of elation when one of the first Metro
trains rolled into Chatelet underground station.
    ``I never thought I'd be so happy to see a Metro. It's like
a dream, a breath of fresh air,'' said Scheherazade Boudard, 26.
``Paris without the Metro is hell.''
    Symbolising the beginning of the end of the rail stoppage, a
high-speed TGV train left Lille in northern France at 6 a.m.
(0500 GMT) on Friday, carrying a mere 10 passengers to Paris's
Charles de Gaulle International Airport.
    The train arrived half an hour late after striking railway
workers blocked the tracks until police could clear the way.
    Rail officials said it would take several days to clear rust
from the lines and get the network fully operating, and die-hard
strikers might yet try to disrupt the resumption.
    Altogether six round trips between Lille and Roissy were
scheduled for Friday. Other regional services in the north and
east and some trains to Belgium were to resume later on Friday.
    ``The resumption of traffic can only be done
progressively,'' SNCF said. It forecast a slightly wider service
on Saturday, with trains, for instance, linking Paris with Lyon
and Dijon in central France.
    It predicted there would still be no Eurostar trains between
Paris and London and only six between London and Brussels.
    In Paris, six Metro underground lines ran limited services
on Friday, RATP said. About six percent of buses were running.
    Postal services were also improving, with just two percent
of workers striking and disruptions at 39 of 135 sorting centres
compared to 46 on Thursday, the post office said. The two main
Paris airports were operating normally.
 ^REUTER@
Reut15:13 12-15-95

Reuter N:Copyright 1995, Reuters News Service


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