Disgruntled French workers give leaders rough ride to ballot box

By CATHERINE FIELD

PARIS - France is in the grip of a wave of strikes as it gears for a year of key elections to the presidency and legislature.

In the past four months, it seems that virtually every public service has been knocked by strikes, demonstrations or work-to-rules as workers press their claims, wielding as their weapons the Government's dread of disorder and fear of retribution at the ballot box.

Tens of thousands of teachers have gone on strike to demand more spending on schools. Hospital workers, air-traffic controllers and post office employees, seeking higher pay, have followed suit.

The police force successfully pushed for more money and more officers on the beat. That prompted the country's 100,000 gendarmes to stage an illegal week-long series of demonstrations in successful pursuit of the same goal.

Nor is this unrest the preserve of the public sector. Staff at food giant Lu-Danone blocked the Paris ring road in protest at threatened job cuts, and workers at troubled shoe manufacturer Bata trashed four of the company's shops in Paris.

Family doctors have staged a three-day strike, refusing to make house visits or late-night calls, to demand an increase in their basic consultation fee.

The introduction of the euro on January 1 was overshadowed by the threat of a bank workers' strike, although this fizzled out when Finance Minister Laurent Fabius begged strikers to think of the damage this would do to France's image.

"This will be a winter of discontent," Marc Blondel, head of the Socialist trade union Force Ouvriere, warned last month.

The main drive to strike is looming elections that will determine France's political complexion for the next five years. Presidential elections are due in April, in which the Socialist Premier, Lionel Jospin, aged 64, is expected to run against the conservative incumbent, Jacques Chirac, 69. That will be followed in June by elections to the National Assembly, the lower House of Parliament.

True to French political tradition, neither of the presidential contenders is doing anything to face down the strikers. Like two big cats warily circling each other, neither Jospin nor Chirac has formally declared his candidacy, a move they prefer to leave to the last minute to gain tactical advantage, and each tailors his policy statements to fit the fickle public mood of the day.

Jospin has conceded extra spending of at least €7 billion to buy peace in the public sector, at a time France's tax revenues are slumping because of the post-September 11 slowdown and when it must also meet strict limits on budget deficits required of members of the single European currency.

Exacerbating the flabby political response are genuine problems in the workplace, notably the keystone piece of legislation passed by the Jospin Government - the 35-hour working week.

Large private-sector corporations started implementing this law two years ago, either trimming the maximum number of hours from 37 to 35 or offering workers more holiday time, of up to 20 days a year.

The second phase of the law foresees its application to the public sector and small private businesses. But this step is proving hardest of all, given that both Government and small businesses have little spare money to throw at the problem, and hospital workers, police and gendarmes are upset that they have yet to gain the benefits of their private-sector counterparts.