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PARIS — After 11 days on strike, workers of Abilis, a cleaning company at the Charles de Gaulle Airport here, went back to work. "This is a tremendous victory," said Rachida, one of the strikers who asked that only her first name be used.

The company increased its offer for a daily bonus to 30 francs now, and another 10 francs at the end of the year (1 franc = US$0.16). The workers had demanded an immediate bonus of 40 francs a day. The company has agreed to continue neogotiations on all other issues raised by the union, and to partially compensate workers for wages lost during the strike.

"If we don't get what we want on some other issues we'll probably have to strike again," said Rachida. "Anyway, they can't treat us like slaves any more," she added.

All 85 of the Abilis workers took part in the strike. In addition to the daily bonus, their demands included an increase in the bonus for night workers, an increase in holiday pay to 75 percent of regular wages, and the payment of a 13th-month bonus at the end of the year.

The daily bonus was the biggest issue. On the second day of the strike, management proposed a 15-franc bonus, betting on a rapid deterioration of the strike.

"They thought that we would never go on strike. Most of us were previously unemployed or receiving RMI [government assistance given to those with no other resources]. They believed that we would be ready to accept anything," said Philippe, a member of the CFDT [French democratic labor federation] union, which represents a majority of the workers at Abilis. "But it was the bosses, that got the surprise."

"Every month something was missing on our pay slip. Unpaid hours, a work day, or a bonus that was 'forgotten,' " said Christophe Maurice, a young worker proudly wearing a Che Guevara badge.

Day shift workers make between 4,800 and 5,000 francs a month ($785-800). Those on the night shift earn between 6,300 and 6,500 francs a month.

Many airport workers came individually to show their solidarity, even though no concrete support was organized by the unions at other companies in the airport. While this correspondent was talking to a group of Abilis strikers, two transporters who work for Brinks came to show their solidarity. One said that a strike is being prepared at Brinks and encouraged the Abilis workers to hold firm. Air France workers flashed signs of encouragement while passing the strikers.

In the same week, Air France baggage handlers organized daily one-hour work stoppages, delaying planes, to protest against the proposed agreement on the 35-hour workweek introducing work time flexibility. Paris-area airport bus drivers struck for a day October 14 for the same reason.  
 

Shop workers in London: 'We want union rights!'

LONDON — "What do we want? Union rights," chanted a dozen workers picketing a Pricecheck supermarket in central London October 13. Jalal Uddin told Militant reporters, "We organize pickets like this on our breaks and days off outside different Pricecheck shops. We give out information and get people to boycott the stores until the owner recognizes our union."

Some 120 workers are employed in nine Pricecheck shops in central London owned by businessman Manzoor Chaudhary. Uddin explained, "We're only paid £3.65 [$5.50] an hour. Our conditions are poor and we get no holiday or sick pay. Last Christmas Day we'd had enough and in some of the shops we refused to work unless we were paid overtime pay for working a holiday."

In response, Chaudhary sacked three of the most vocal workers and victimized others with demotions.

"I wasn't in the union then," Uddin added. "Most of the others weren't either, so we contacted the Transport and General Workers Union [TGWU]." Seventy five percent of the workers in the nine stores are now TGWU members.

Chaudhary conceded overtime pay for the Christmas Day, but refuses to recognize the union or reinstate the demoted and fired workers.

Mohammed, one of the sacked workers who asked that only his first name be used, said, "I was already in the TGWU. I'd been a member since a unionization dispute in Garners Steakhouse in 1978."

Referring to other unionization fights led by immigrant workers in the late 1970s and more recently, Mohammed added, "Asian workers are taking a lead in the fight to defend the unions." Most of the Pricecheck workers are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Mohammed recently joined a small delegation of Pricecheck workers to the picket line of strikers at Lufthansa Skychefs at Heathrow airport. These catering workers, most of whom are immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, have been on strike for 11 months to defend their union and conditions.  
 

Health-care strikers rally for contract in Illinois

GODFREY, Illinois — More than 200 members and supporters of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3784, on strike against Beverly Farms since July 9, turned out for "Strikers Weekend — Speak Out" September 18–19. They picketed and rallied in front of Beverly Farms, a private home for mentally disabled adults, during Parents Day and an annual board meeting.

Strikers explained to parents entering the health facility that they were on strike for a contract. Striker Lucille Butler said they were picketing to tell the families of the 400 residents, "They have rights too. Their children need good care."

Since the strike began, Monte Welker, the home's director, has been hiring temporary workers. According to Butler, the scabs are getting "inadequate, bad training."

The workers voted to join AFSCME by a big majority in 1994. A final contact offer was rejected in 1995 by the union membership. Beverly Farm refused to continue negotiations until they were ordered to by the National Labor Relations Board and a federal appellate court in 1998.

The union is demanding a 65-cent wage increase and a grievance procedure. Laundry and dietary workers now start at $5.35 an hour and other workers start at $5.50. Strike breakers hired at local temporary agencies are being paid $12-15 an hour.

Striker Crystal Price, 25, who has worked at Beverly Farms for 6 years, explained that she has been part of a group of strikers who have been picketing a temporary agency in East St. Louis, Illinois. She said when they began 32 temporaries were catching the bus from the agency to Beverly Farms. It is now down to five.

The morning of September 19, strikers and supporters picketed the training center where the board of directors was meeting. One parent leaving the board meeting told strikers that Welker, the director, told them a letter signed by 41 local ministers supporting the strike had been forged. One of the signers of this letter was present to inform the parent that this was not true.

In Godfrey and the neighboring town of Alton, yard after yard sports signs saying "We Support the Beverly Farms Workers" The strikers have held several rallies, including one attended by 300–500 people that was addressed by politician Jesse Jackson.  
 

Lockout at Yellow Pages ends in Montreal

MONTREAL, Quebec — "We are very satisfied. The atmosphere is very good. Even the girls who didn't agree are very happy with the results." This is how Sylvie Champagne, who has worked 14 years at Bell ActiMédia (Yellow Pages) in Montreal described the end of their lockout to the Militant. The 350 members of the Office and Professional Employees Union were locked out on March 10 after they rejected the employers' final offer by 61 percent.

Workers returned to work September 27 after voting by 89 percent in favor of a new contract offer. The company withdrew its demand to eliminate banked days off — days covered by the workers being paid 35.5 hours for a 37.5-hour workweek. This would have resulted in a 4.4 percent cut in hourly pay.

The union won wage increases totaling 10.5 percent over the five years of the contract, and separation pay will increase to three weeks for each year of service. Champagne commented on the more-than-six-month fight, "It was worth it. We got a good contract."

Throughout the lockout workers maintained their picket lines and organized a series of other actions to win support. They faced several court injunctions. During the six months, a part of the work normally done in Montreal was done in Toronto, where the workers, who belong to an association, did not strike. Champagne commented, "The company is afraid that the people in Toronto will change their union. The next time everyone would be out."

Jean-Louis Salfati, an airport worker in Paris; Celia Pugh in London; Alyson Kennedy, a garment worker in St. Louis, and Shelton McCrainey, a member of USWA Local 9014 in Bridgeton, Missouri; and Alexandre Geoffroy and Joe Young, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers in St. Blaise, Quebec, contributed to this column.  
 
 
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