French Strikes Ease; Unions Face Protests

Several thousand right-wing militants mounted anti-union demonstrations Monday in Paris, despite the near-collapse of all but one of the strikes that have snarled and infuriated France.

For the most part, the demonstrations, in unusually cold weather for Paris, were peaceful, although a member of the National Assembly was slightly injured in a confrontation at the Communist trade union’s local headquarters in a Paris suburb.

The deputy, Eric Raoult, a member of Premier Jacques Chirac’s right-wing party, was hit in the head with a club as he and his followers scuffled with union members in front of the building. Four stitches were required to close the wound.

The demonstrations and the fight reflected the acrimony that persists in France despite signs that the country is emerging from one of its worst labor conflicts in years.

The mood was worsened by a strike on the Paris subways that forced many Parisians to walk for miles in temperatures around 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Subway workers will decide today whether to accept a management offer of a wage increase of just under 3%.

Communist Holdouts

All workers except those belonging to the Communist union decided to accept a similar wage increase from the government-run electric company. The striking Communist union said it will keep enough members on the job to make sure there are no more of the power shortages that infuriated small shopkeepers last week.

But despite this promise, the electric company cut power several times during the day, although not because of the strike. Officials blamed the freezing weather, which had brought down power lines in some areas.

Most railway workers, who have been on strike for almost four weeks, were returning to work, although at some depots around the country personnel voted to continue the strike. Railway officials said they expect trains to be running normally today for the first time since the strike began.

Nevertheless, the effects of the strike were still being felt. Some buildings in Paris were without heat Monday because of the failure of oil supplies to reach Paris.

Premier Chirac, whose popularity has been declining rapidly in opinion polls, was not gloating over what could be interpreted as a victory over the labor unions. Chirac, as part of his anti-inflation policy, had refused to budge on his insistence that no wage increase would top 3%, and most of the strikers have given up without budging him.

But while most French, according to the polls, support the anti-inflation policy, many may be upset with Chirac for allowing the strikes to begin--and to continue.

Both Sides Won, Lost

Michel Noblecourt, labor analyst for Le Monde, France’s most influential newspaper, concluded that in the long rail strike, the government and the workers both won and lost. While Chirac held down the wage settlement, Noblecourt wrote, that was never the real issue. The workers, who are returning to work in an obviously disgruntled mood, prevailed in forcing the government to withdraw a controversial and, for France, radical plan to substitute merit for seniority as the basis for promotion. This is the issue that set off the strike.

The fight that broke out in the suburb followed warnings by leftists and labor leaders that demonstrations would only add poison to the atmosphere. But Chirac supported the demonstrations.

“Demonstrations,” he told journalists Monday, “are not the monopoly of just one side. Everyone has the right to say what he wants.”

Late-afternoon demonstrations were organized in the square facing the Palais-Royal by the two conservative parties that make up Chirac’s ruling coalition and in the square facing the Paris Opera by the extreme-right National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen. In the larger demonstration, by the two conservative government parties, the main targets were Henri Krasucki, leader of the Communist-dominated General Confederation of Labor, and President Francois Mitterrand, a Socialist.