Workers on the evening shift March 15 in car assembly, upon learning of the results, banged on their lockers at the end of the work day, whooping it up and shouting "we won."

Five unions presented competing slates in the election. All of them ,except the CGT (General Confederation of Labor) had docilely signed the three agreements. The CGT nearly doubled its vote, from 1,242 to 2,189, becoming the first union among production workers and low-level employees with 43 percent of the vote. On the main assembly lines, the CGT won more than 50 percent of the vote.

Workers are particularly fed up with the higher than ever levels of overtime, which have been programmed every week for the last two months. The recent "flexibility" agreement facilitates working extra hours with payment only at the end of the year under certain conditions.

For decades the bosses have pressured workers not to join the CGT, which is the main union among industrial workers in France. Instead, they have promoted house unions, such as the CSL (Confederation of Free Trade Unions). A few months ago, the CSL in Poissy joined the local unit of FO (Workers Force), a nationally recognized union, in a bid for more respectability. But in the March 15 elections, the new FO lost nearly half the votes received by both FO and the CSL in the 1998 elections, dropping from 67 percent to 34 percent.  
 
 
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