The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.25           June 24, 1996 
 
 
France: Workers Rally Against Gov't Policies On Wages, Unemployment  

BY NAT LONDON

PARIS - A little yellow sticker summed up the mood of tens of thousands of angry workers as they hit the streets of Paris in a series of demonstrations the first week of June. "Juppé," warned the sticker, "the rail workers are back to kick your a...!!!" referring to Prime Minister Alain Juppé.

The June 7 Paris financial daily La Tribune Desfossés described the demonstrations of rail workers, gas, electric and telecommunication workers, teachers, and retirees as "impressive" mobilizations, preparing a "hot offensive" by the unions in the fall against the scourge of unemployment and government wage policy. "The Unions Send a Warning to Juppé for the Fall" said the paper's main headline.

On May 23, 10,000 workers demonstrated in Paris and thousands more in other cities demanding a reduction in the work week with no cut in pay to create more jobs.

Unemployment in France is at 11.9 percent and has hovered around this level for several years. Increasing numbers of French workers see a shorter work week as a solution to this problem. According to public opinion polls, 41 percent of the French population held this view in 1994. This figure rose to 51 percent last year and now stands at 60 percent. A majority of workers now believe that there should be no cut in pay if working hours are reduced.

On May 30, some 90 local actions drew tens of thousands of retired workers into the streets. One week later, 5,000 retired workers demonstrated in Paris. The retirees are protesting their declining purchasing power.

As part of the Juppé plan to slash social security, taxes have been raised on retirement pensions. Exemptions from paying some type of social security taxes, which are withheld from workers' paychecks, have been lifted. Last fall, massive strikes and demonstrations forced Juppé to back off on some of the elements of his plan. He abandoned his efforts to raise the retirement age for 5.5 million public workers. One million work days were lost during the December strikes alone.

On June 1, more than 10,000 teachers demonstrated in Paris to protest threatened cutbacks in pubic employment. Many of the banners angrily pointed to Juppé's recent remarks that the civil service system creates "bad fat." The prime minister announced budget restrictions to get rid of this "excess weight" that will result in layoffs.

Three days later, thousands of telecommunication workers took a turn in a one-day national strike and local demonstrations. According to management of France Télécom, some 32 percent of the 155,000 telecommunication workers walked off the job - slightly less than their last one-day strike April 11.

"We are all really worried about the restructuring of France Télécom and the privatization of its most profitable sectors," said one demonstrator, sporting a badge of the CGT, his union. "Workers will be forcibly transferred to other areas of France. A multi-tiered system will replace the current system of public services as an equal right to everyone in the country."

The high point of the week of actions was the two massive demonstrations in Paris on June 5 and 6, first by 40,000 gas and electric workers from all over France followed by an equal number of railroad workers next day. Delegations vied with each other in ingenuity, with waves of giant balloons and banners, whistles, firecrackers, horns used by rail work crews to warn approaching trains, smoke grenades, and railroad flares. Demonstrators in hard-hats and costumes carrying all sorts of noisemakers and shouting "All together, all together" - the slogan of last fall's strike wave - gave the two actions a spirited and combative air.

Didier, a member of the CGT and an electrical worker from Tours, saw the ending of the state monopoly in electricity as the first step towards privatization. Different rates would be charged for electricity in different regions "as is now done in Britain," he said. He also wanted overtime work to be stopped so that EDF, the state electrical company, would have to hire the unemployed.

Didier stopped by a table featuring copies of the Marxist magazine Nouvelle Internationale and books by Pathfinder Press to buy a copy of the theses of the trade union congress recently held in Cuba. He and 200 other members of the CGT union at EDF had just come back from a trip to Cuba where they had participated in a marathon race and in the May Day demonstrations. Didier is now working on setting up a sister relationship between his union in Tours and unions in Camaguay, Cuba. He was very interested to hear about plans for a world trade union conference to be held in Cuba next year.

José Perez from Rouen, a leader of the rail strike last fall as well as of the previous rail strike in 1986, said there is a threat to rail as a public service. "They want to close thousands of kilometers of unprofitable lines, leaving many regions without rail service," he said. Gas, electric, and rail utilities, the post office, and the telephone system were all recognized as public services following the liberation of France from Nazi occupation near the end of World War II. They are state monopolies, and everyone is considered to have the right to access to these services at the same fixed rate.

Freddie Roberts and Terry Barrett came to the railroad workers demonstration. Both are among 500 Merseyside dock workers from Liverpool, England, who were fired last September for refusing to cross a picket line. They have been invited for an 11-day tour by the CGT and by rail workers in the new union SUD. They will be visiting Paris and Rouen in Normandy looking for support in their struggle. "We all have the same aim," Roberts said. "To make things better for the working class and to let the bosses know we won't be threatened and pushed around."

Nat London is a member of the CGT at the Renault plant at Choisy-le-roi. Jean-Pierre Dubois contributed to this article.  
 
 
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