French Plan Massive Strike Today To Protest Government Proposals

Millions of French workers were set to walk off the job today in the biggest protest to date against the conservative government’s cost-cutting.

The general strike, billed as the largest since 1986, was expected to involve most of France’s 5 million public service employees and thousands of others who have decided to join in solidarity.

The strike is designed to shut down trains, subways, buses, post offices, banks, government offices and most schools. Hospitals will handle only emergencies.

Subway and train traffic was sharply reduced Thursday night, and more than half the domestic flights scheduled to depart after 8 p.m. were canceled.

The walkout, called by powerful public service unions upset at the government’s plan to change retirement and health plans, will be the second in as many months. A third strike is planned for Tuesday.

A poll released Thursday showed that 54 percent of the French approve of the strike. But 56 percent agreed with government proposals to extend the number of years that public employees must pay into the system before retirement, making the minimum more in line with that of the private sector.

The poll, taken by the CSA organization and published by the Paris newspaper Le Parisien, said 65 percent of those questioned said they would either join or support a general strike to protest the changes. Just 19 percent said they were hostile to the strike.

The poll of 1,000 people, taken Monday and Tuesday, gave no margin of error, but polls with that kind of sampling have a margin of 3 percent.

The changes are designed to eliminate a $46 billion deficit in the retirement and health plans within the next 10 years. Premier Alain Juppe hopes to cut the expected $12 billion 1996 deficit by half and to eliminate the 1997 deficit entirely.

In addition to extending the time that public employees must pay into the system by 2-1/2 years, the plan calls for new taxes and stricter controls over the medicine doctors can prescribe.

The prime minister’s proposal has caused a serious split within the French labor movement.

The General Confederation of Labor, the country’s biggest union, and Worker Force strongly oppose the reform because it would take away their control of the system and give it to parliament. The French Democratic Confederation of Workers, however, supports key elements of the plan.

Railroad workers also are protesting a planned contract that calls for additional layoffs and the closing of thousands of miles of unprofitable routes.

Post office and telephone workers are unhappy over plans to partially privatize the public services, while students at many universities have voted to continue their strike to press for better conditions and more teachers.