Air strike rocks French government

By S‚an Healy

PARIS -- Two weeks of strike which all but shut down France's major airports forced Prime Minister Edouard Balladur to back down on October 25 and cancel job cuts planned by Air France chief Bernard Attali.

The forced resignations of Attali and the head of Air Inter, the internal airline, Jean-Cyril Spinetta, came only a week after the government declared the plans “irrevocable”.

The strike began at Charles de Gaulle Airport outside Paris, after the government gave the go-ahead to a program of cost-cutting in the French air transport industry, a plan which included 4000 job losses at Air France and wage cuts. It was expected to save over $1200 million a year.

The strike, called largely by Air France ground staff, spread to Paris' other airport, Orly, and to many regional airports. There were violent clashes between riot police and strikers, who repeatedly occupied terminals and runways.

Pilots and other air crews announced they would join the strike. Other public services, including Paris transport and the state railways, were expected to stage solidarity strikes on October 26.

The militancy of the strikers obviously stunned the government. At one point, strikers even turned the waterhose of the airport fire brigade on the water cannon wielding police.

This first major strike since the conservative government was elected in March, reflects a steadily worsening social and economic situation. Unemployment in France is 11.7%, or 3.2 million.

Pierre Avril, a political analyst at the Sorbonne, told the International Herald-Tribune: “Mr Balladur worked closely with Prime Minister Georges Pompidou during the May 1968 riots, and he has an abiding fear of a repetition ... of a situation that risks becoming uncontrollable”.

The retreat provoked outrage from the establishment press, which fears that it may lead to strike action by other public services against further austerity and privatisation. Air France is only one of 21 companies marked for privatisation.

The conservative Figaro called Balladur “the king without clothes” and said his concession throws doubt on both his deficit reduction plan and his acceptance of world trade accords which are sure to provoke widespread protest from French farmers.

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