French Labor Problems Worsen : 1-Day Strikes Hit Subways, Nation’s Power System

France’s labor problems intensified Tuesday as strikes hit the Paris subways and the nation’s electrical power system, but Premier Jacques Chirac maintained his tough stance and insisted that his government will never change its wage policy.

Chirac took his position in the face of a nationwide rail strike that entered its 20th day Tuesday plus two new, one-day labor actions--a walkout by subway workers that crippled Paris transportation and a strike by electrical workers that played havoc with power throughout the country.

Chirac’s tough line was obviously designed to bolster his image as a dynamic leader at a time when polls indicate that his popularity has declined to the extent that he could easily be beaten in the 1988 presidential election by President Francois Mitterrand or any other prominent Socialist.

Thatcher Prestige

The French press has reported that the conservative Chirac wants to come out of the labor confrontation with the kind of prestige that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher acquired as a result of breaking the coal miners’ strike in Britain three years ago.

The French labor troubles, all involving companies run by the government, were further politicized by the attempt of the Communist-dominated General Confederation of Labor to take over the leadership of the discontented workers. Trying to capitalize on the rail strike, which was undertaken by workers of all unions without consulting their leaders, the Communist confederation called on subway, electrical and postal workers to strike and demonstrate Tuesday. A large crowd of workers--the police said 10,000, the labor confederation said 40,000--marched through the streets of Paris.

The national rail system, or SNCF, which has insisted that the strikers were weakening, said it could operate 40% of its trains without them. Subway operations were cut in half in Paris for most of the day Tuesday, and suburbanites had to contend with about the same slowdown on their trains.

Irregular Power Cuts

The government electric company said half of its workers were on strike. Homes and offices and street traffic lights were subject to annoying, irregular power cuts throughout the day. Post office operations appeared to be fairly normal on the surface, but there were reports that not enough mail was being sorted to make deliveries worthwhile.

Chirac, who has been severely criticized for his stubbornness in the rail strike by newspaper editorial writers, Socialist critics and even fellow conservatives, called a Cabinet meeting in the morning and then told reporters, “The government will not deviate from its policies because it would be irresponsible to do so.”

Elaborating in a two-hour evening radio interview, Chirac said he is not trying to make the unions capitulate but that the government, in its fight against inflation and unemployment, does not want wage increases to go beyond 3%. Asked if he would relent at all, Chirac replied, “Never, not my government.”

But this tough line on inflationary wage increases sidestepped Chirac’s main criticism. The rail workers, when they went out on strike, were less concerned about wages than about a plan to put more emphasis on merit rather than seniority as the basis for promotion. It was widely assumed that this plan had been put forward by the Chirac government as part of what French conservatives call their “liberal” economic philosophy.

So Little Consultation

Critics like Mitterrand and even former President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who is a partner in Chirac’s conservative coalition, criticized Chirac for trying to impose a social change of such magnitude on the railway workers with so much speed and so little consultation.

Under mounting pressure, the government’s SNCF system, in the middle of the strike, withdrew the plan but issued an ambiguous statement implying that it might try to bring it up again. The ambiguity, according to press reports at the time, was demanded by Chirac because, after giving in to all the demands of protesting university students in early December, he did not want to be seen as surrendering to the railway workers. Still, this ambiguity was one of the reasons the railroad workers refused to end their strike.

Absolving Himself

In the interview, Chirac denied that his government had anything to do with the proposed merit system. He said his government had imposed the anti-inflationary wage limit but had left the French railways free to negotiate anything it wanted in terms of promotions and other working conditions.

In short, Chirac was adopting a line that most political leaders, including President Mitterrand and other Socialists, supported while absolving himself of any responsibility for the policy that infuriated the railway workers and brought on the other labor troubles.