Workers Around the World: 11/13/97 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the November 13, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- WORKERS AROUND THE WORLD: NOVEMBER 13, 1997 FRANCE: TRUCKERS' BLOCKADES UP AGAIN For the second time in a year, truck drivers have brought French commerce nearly to a standstill. Blockades went up at international borders and fuel depots across the country on Nov. 2. "We've decided to go all the way," one driver told the French News Agency. "We're tired of promises." In the 24 hours after the strike was called, 190 blockades went up across the country. Police attacked strikers at the Spanish border, but trucks trying to cross to Britain and Germany were left stranded. Ten thousand drivers paralyzed France for 12 days in November 1996, setting up hundreds of barricades that only allowed passenger cars to pass. That strike was settled after a general agreement to lower retirement age, limit working hours, and raise wages. Now the unions say bosses have backed out of that agreement. So the barricades are up again, less than a year later. Workers are fighting for raises of 20 percent and improved benefits. "Truck drivers are in a hard-line mood," said one striker in Herault, southern France. "This time they will fight to the end, and are ready to last for a month or two if necessary." Union leader Guillaume Betrand told French television, "If this strike means that the country comes to a halt, then so be it." The specter of a new shutdown of the French economy sent panic through ruling-class political circles across Europe. Socialist Party Prime Minister Lionel Jospin tried to push a compromise at the last minute--by offering trucking bosses a tax cut. But the bosses' federation rejected that offer, saying the savings would be too small. And unions demanded that any tax cut be translated completely into higher wages. The European Commission issued a Nov. 3 statement pressuring the French government to end the workers' action. According to the statement, member states are legally bound to ensure that the single market functions efficiently. "The Commission has a duty to work to ensure that this obligation is fulfilled," it said. Spanish Agriculture Minister Loyola de Palacio condemned the French truckers for "trying to break the European Union's internal market." The truckers' unions backing the roadblocks are the Communist CGT, the militant Workers Force and the CFDT, the biggest truckers' union. Immigrants protest deportations Over 2,500 immigrants demonstrated in Paris on Nov. 1, the day after a government deadline to submit papers for permanent status. The protesters blasted the government procedure for processing immigrants' applications as unfair and haphazard. Thousands of immigrants, mostly from French-speaking African countries, have been expelled since an extremely restrictive anti-immigrant law was passed in 1994. Families of those with papers are now subject to deportation, and fewer applications are considered. The demonstrators demanded that those immigrants already in France be granted residence papers, and that the deportations be ended. GERMANY: POLICE ATTACK POLISH TRUCKERS German police attacked a demonstration of Polish truck drivers on Nov. 1, smashing truck windows and throwing passengers from their cabs. The Polish drivers had tried to blockade the Schwedt-Krajnik Dolny border post to protest slow processing on the German side. Fifty cops in riot gear attacked the drivers with batons and police dogs. Eleven workers were arrested. They were released after the Polish government, increasingly craven to its imperialist counterparts in Western Europe, pleaded for their release. BRITAIN: STUDENTS HIT RISING TUITION Labor Party Prime Minister Tony Blair was elected on May 1 after campaigning for "education, education, and education." Now, his plan to add a $1,600 fee to university tuition has brought tens of thousands of students into the streets. On Nov. 1, students held rallies at 14 cities across Britain. Between 2,500 and 5,000 attended each rally. Diane Abbot, a Labor member of Parliament, was booed as she took the stage in Trafalgar Square in London. But the boos turned to cheers as she came out against the Blair government policy. "Education has to be funded and it has to be supported by the government, otherwise we might as well pack up and go home," declared Sally Hunt, assistant general secretary of the Association of University Teachers. Simon Webber, national secretary of the National Union of Students, called the proposed tuition fees a "time bomb sitting under the government." HONDURAS: HEALTH WORKERS STRIKE Some 10,000 health-care workers in Honduras struck on Oct. 31 to push their demands for uniforms and better salaries. On Nov. 3, the Union of Medicine and Hospital Workers (Sitramedhys) widened the strike to cover all hospitals and health centers across the Central American country. "The strikes continue, and we have sent word to the 54 sections across the country that as of Monday, the entire hospital system will be paralyzed," Sitramedhys Secretary of Housing Jose Maria Silva Flores told the Honduran daily newspaper La Prensa. The striking health-care workers were only attending to emergency cases. Another union demand was protection from the police, who attacked a demonstration of 1,500 unionists on Oct. 30. Several workers were injured and 51 were arrested. "The government has the last word in how long the strike will last," Silva said. GHANA: AIR CONTROLLERS WALK Air-traffic controllers in the Ghanian capital of Accra walked off the job on Nov. 2, according to the PANA news service. The workers are demanding a pay raise, an end to disciplinary harassment, and better job classifications. The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, the union representing the workers, issued a statement saying that the union's attempts to resolve disputes without industrial action had been misconstrued by bosses as a sign of weakness. The union warned of possible disaster if management refused to negotiate. "We would like to state categorically that if this line of action is not taken to redress the problem, an accident arising out of neglect for the human factors in air traffic control would be inevitable and the consequent loss of life and property would be incomparably more expensive," the union stated. Management is running flights out of Accra's airport using supervisors. The controllers warn that these managers are unqualified. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-11.07.97-04:02:19-14758