BY NAT LONDON
PARIS - It has been a very short honeymoon for the new
French government. Within days of its inauguration, tens of
thousands of gas, electric, telephone, postal, and rail
workers were striking and demonstrating.
The actions are a warning to the conservative administration of Prime Minister Alain Juppé that workers are in no mood to give him a vote of confidence by limiting their continuing struggle for higher wages and job rights and against cutbacks, downsizing, and privatization plans.
The actions recall a series of similar protests in the fall of 1993 that forced then-prime minister Edouard Balladur to back off from plans to radically restructure French industry.
Juppé has already partially retreated on one of his pet projects, the privatization of France Télécom, the state- run telecommunications company.
At the same time, Michel Bernard, director of the state- run airline Air Inter, resigned following the seventh strike in 10 weeks. Workers are protesting plans to restructure and privatize the company, cutting 600 jobs. Air Inter is owned by Air France.
Bernard was the second Air Inter director in a row to resign under fire. Following a strike at Air France in October 1993, the directors of both Air France and Air Inter quit. Christian Blanc, who was named head of Air France, has now taken over as director of Air Inter as well. "If the new director continues the same policies, we will fight him in the same way," declared a leader of the front of seven unions that called the strike actions.
Postal workers fight for jobs
Workers at the mail sorting facility in Nice, one of a
number of such centers on strike, voted 82 to 62 to return
to work May 21 after occupying the center for more than a
month. The work stoppage had become a symbol among postal
workers as the riot police launched numerous attempts to
dislodge the strikers. Post office bosses organized a
parallel mail sorting center using management personnel. The
fascist National Front of Jean-Marie Le Pen organized
demonstrations of small businessmen hostile to the strikers.
The strikers voted to return to work after postal management abandoned plans to reduce the workforce by eight jobs. Instead, two new jobs were created and eight workers currently on temporary, part-time contracts will be hired into regular, full-time jobs. Management has also agreed to pay half of the wages for those who were on strike. However, plans to move the mail sorting center out of the Nice airport have been maintained.
"Nothing will be like before," read the headline on a leaflet prepared by the strikers' general assembly.
Gas, electric, postal, and telecommunication workers struck for 24 hours May 30 and organized mass demonstrations. The next day, rail workers organized a national march in Paris.
One-quarter of the 160,000 workers at EDF-GDF (Electricity and Gas of France) demonstrated here. The 40,000 participants came to Paris from all over the country by car, train, and even chartered airplane to protest plans to open the production and distribution of electricity in France to private competition. This is seen as the first step toward the privatization of EDF-GDF.
Government changes tune
Following the demonstration the newly appointed minister
of industries, Yves Galland, told the press that privatizing
EDF was "unimaginable."
The same day, 70 percent of the 150,000 workers at France Télécom and 40 percent of the 220,000 postal workers struck.
Following the walkout, Francois Fillon, the government minister in charge of telecommunications, stated, "The evolution of France Télécom is inevitable." However, he added, "certainly not privatization. As far as opening up the capital of France Télécom to private investment, the government cannot yet say." New plans will be announced this summer, he added.
Postal workers are particularly worried about job cutbacks. The number of postal workers has dropped by 8,000 in the last two years.
About 200,000 postal workers are civil servants and are considered to have job tenure. Another 100,000 are temporary workers under part-time contracts; they have no job protection. Limiting the number of contractual workers and expanding the number of full-time tenured positions has been a central question in a series of local strikes over the last three months.
Tens of thousands of rail workers demonstrated in Paris May 31. They are protesting plans to break up the state-run SNCF railroad into small affiliated services, viewed as a first step toward privatization.
Workers at SERNAM, the SNCF freight service, were particularly mobilized for the demonstration. The SNCF plans to reduce the SERNAM workforce to 3,900 workers from its present 5,900 by 1997.
The new government was elected based on promises to improve the condition of working people. Chirac's campaign called for raising workers' wages. Juppé declared that unemployment is the number one priority of his government. He has also promised to raise the minimum wage by about 5 percent on July 1 and to provide 10,000 new low-income lodgings within months.
The government's pledge to finance these projects has brought public warnings from the financial markets, as bankers and bondholders speculate that the franc will suffer sharp devaluation. Juppé has now announced that he will raise the value added tax to 20 percent from its current level of 18.6 percent. This would in effect wipe out the wage gains many workers have won in recent job actions. He has also been counting on receiving 50 billion francs this year from the privatization of state-owned industry.
Despite their stated concern over unemployment, Chirac and Juppé stand firmly behind the objectives of French capitalists, who need to restructure industry by slashing wages, downsizing, and privatizing in order to meet the sharpening competitive challenge from other imperialist powers, particularly the United States. The strikes are making clear that this challenge will not go unanswered.