The strikes, led by railroad workers, started just one week after large numbers of workers either abstained from voting in municipal elections across the country or cast their ballot for small centrist groups that have the image of being more combative than the current government of the Plural Left coalition. The principal parties in the coalition are the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party with SP leader Lionel Jospin as premier. The vote for the French Communist Party has plummeted as workers have become increasingly dissatisfied with the policies of the government.

Privately owned bus, metro, and trolley lines in some 30 cities throughout France were closed down March 26, as workers demanded the retirement age be lowered to age 55. The next day workers assemblies voted to renew the action, which the unions had initially projected to last 24 hours. Strikes were lifted progressively over the next week, although bus transport in the city of Rennes was totally halted for 25 days. National negotiations have been opened on lowering the retirement age for mass transit workers in the private sector, and a new one-day strike has been called in 49 cities for April 23.

Three days into the bus and subway drivers' action, railroad workers responded to a call by six national unions for a one-day walkout on March 29. The action called for a wage increase and for hiring more rail workers. The main reason for the action, however, was to call for an end to "Cap client," a management program to reorganize the state-run SNCF rail service into four separate administrations. Workers believe that "Cap client" is the first step towards a breakup and privatization of the SNCF, a state monopoly. Two previous attempts to privatize the SNCF were defeated by major rail strikes in 1986 and 1995.

The next day, large numbers of rail workers remained on strike at the call of several small unions but without the support of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), by far the largest union in rail. The French Communist Party dominates the CGT leadership.

The strikes were renewed on a daily basis by general assemblies of workers held at each train depot. A majority of train drivers remained on strike followed by a small number of other rail workers. Unions that did not call for the strike, including the CGT, said they would nevertheless respect the decision of the workers assemblies.

On April 5, one week after the start of the rail strike, SNCF president Louis Gallois opened negotiations, promising a 1.2 percent wage increase for 2001 and the hiring of 1,000 additional rail workers. He also announced a "pause" in the application of "Cap client." Gallois told the daily Libération that there was no risk of "Cap client" leading to privatization since "the public authorities and myself absolutely exclude this hypothesis."

Transportation Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, a member of the French Communist Party and himself once a rail worker, testified before the Senate that he could "assure the railroad workers that I am resolutely opposed to privatization and any breakup of the SNCF."

Fighting railroad workers were not convinced. The next day general assemblies once again renewed the strike, which continued during the Easter holiday season. It took more than two weeks for the last train depots to vote to return to work. The strikers' intransigence led to a debate on the government's perspectives.

"The political contract that [Transport Minister] Gayssot has with the government to maintain social peace," says Dominique Bussereau, a deputy from the conservative Liberal Democracy Party, "has not been honored. He should straighten out the problem or he should go."

For Le Parisien, one of the largest daily papers in France, "any government has a legitimate fear of a railroad workers' strike. It would not be very wise to push the rail workers to radicalize their movement on the very eve of important elections. Remember what happened in 1986 and 1995."  
 
'Haunted by 1995 strikes'
The business daily La Tribune complained, "The Premier [Jospin], like all political leaders, has been lastingly marked by the syndrome of the 1995 strikes. He seems to have opted for buying social peace any time he can."

In order to avoid the spread of the rail strike to other sectors, the government announced it would not apply the EU directive ordering the partial privatization of Gaz de France, another public service state monopoly, until at least 2002. The future of Gaz de France has been handicapped" ran the front-page headline of the financial daily, Les Echos.

Rightist groups have used the strikes to renew calls for limiting--or even forbidding outright--strikes in public services. Jacques Chirac, the French president and leader of the Gaullist party, the Rally for the Republic, publicly supported the call for a guaranteed minimum service in case of strikes while the SP's Jospin opposed limiting the right to strike. Jospin, in a nationally televised press conference, pointed out that any attempt to impose a minimum service "would shut down the rail system for many weeks."

Under growing pressure from the railroad workers, Jospin also confirmed his opposition to privatization of the railroads. "We have seen," he said, "the example of the consequences of privatization of the railroads in Great Britain and of the electricity system in California."

The SNCF has lost more than 1 billion francs during the strike and has offered an additional 800 million francs in wage increases (1 franc = US 14 cents).

Added to the debate on privatization has been the question of layoffs and plant closures. The slowdown of the U.S. economy has begun to have repercussions in Europe. Significant layoffs and plant closures in France have been announced by the food distribution giant Gervais-Danone, the British-based department store chain Marks and Spencer, two electronics and telecommunications companies, Philips from the Netherlands, and Ericsson, based in Sweden. Pechiney has announced the closure of the only magnesium producing plant in Europe.

Workers at Danone have occupied two plants scheduled for closure and the Pechiney workers occupied their plant with the general director locked in his office for 24 hours. Close to 30,000 demonstrated in Calais April 21 at the call of the French Communist Party to defend the Danone workers.

Finally, more than 10,000 farmers marched in 78 towns throughout France April 21 "to save cattle raising and the rural world." Farmers demanded that nearly $200 million in aid promised by the government to help cattle raisers be rapidly disbursed. None of the promised aid has yet been given to farmers. According to farmers' leaders, the current aid program covers only 30 percent of farmers' losses.

Derek Jeffers contributed to this article.  
 
 
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