Seismic Shock from the Mines
HERALD, GEORGE W.
BEHIND THE FRENCH COAL STRIKE Seismic Shock from the Mines By George W. Herald Paris The first rule for a foreign correspondent in Gaullist France is never to dramatize events. As...
...The greatest surprise, however, was the attitude of the Catholic Church...
...The trouble, they suggested, was due to men like Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet, who wanted to chastise de Gaulle for his "sins against the Common Market...
...As an old soldier, General de Gaulle expected strict obedience to his order and, on signing it, he reportedly said to his ministers: "I am sure of the affection of my compatriots...
...The main cause of the political tremor, whose impact is not fully appreciated by the French themselves, was the Government's requisition order to the coal miners...
...As of this writing, negotiations between the miners and the Government have broken down again...
...According to the latest Gallup poll, the strikers have cost the General 9 per cent of his support in France...
...Popular support was so strong, in fact, that local Gaullist politicians sent frantic warnings to Paris...
...Instead he did nothing, thereby suffering a loss of prestige his own followers regard as irreparable...
...The reason was simple: It was technically impossible to force 167,000 miners back into the pits at gun point, and there were not enough prison cells in France to lodge them all...
...Now he suddenly stood exposed as a leader whose commands could be defied without serious risk of retribution...
...Unless the movement could be checked quickly, there was a danger of a general strike developing...
...Its backing came instead from the Catholic Confédération de Travailleurs Chrétiens, seconded by the Socialist Force Ouvière...
...The nuclear defense budget, it is made clear, will be maintained in its entirety...
...The newspaper ParisPresse, which printed these charges, declared that the purpose of the operation was to raise French wages and production costs to the point where United States exports would be more competitive on the world market...
...With the French economy in full swing and pay rates rising sharply in most branches of industry, millions of surface workers are making a better living than the men in the pits...
...As the miners themselves were quick to point out, not even the Germans had dared take such a drastic step during the Occupation...
...He was also reminded of the fact that the French Republic, in keeping with the Concordat, paid him and other members of the high clergy monthly stipends not inferior to the pay of a lieutenant general...
...Although this represented a considerable improvement over the State's initial proposals, it still fell short of the immediate 11 per cent increase asked by the workers, and it was rejected by their union...
...He was all the more hurt and surprised, therefore, by the miners' reaction to his decree...
...In recent years, though, the miners' privileges have begun to dwindle...
...It seems likely then that, to keep the French economy on the upswing, the Government will be forced to grant substantial wage increases to all State-employed workers...
...According to the latter, the $5,000 sent to the French miners by Walter Reuther's United Auto Workers was merely a token gift...
...They flatly refused to return to the pits, and one of their spokesmen said over Radio Luxembourg: "That is not the way to talk to our ancient and noble profession...
...As long as the chief of state remains alive, old-fashioned French common sense will usually prevail in the end— even if only after every less rational avenue has been explored...
...Meanwhile, in rapid succession, the workers in the State-run public utilities—gas, electricity, railways, banks, postal services and atomic energy plants—began to stage warning strikes...
...But, as Premier Georges Pompidou later explained on television, it never occurred to the President that he might have to enforce his order...
...This should have made the Government wary...
...De Gaulle wanted a national striking force—now he has got one...
...On March 13, ignoring its own requisition order, it appointed a three-man "Committee of Wise Men," headed by Pierre Massé, director of the official economic planning commission...
...In France, a requisition order is tantamount to a military draft...
...In my Lorraine, all the miners will go back to work...
...Thus, if all goes according to the rules, the current series of French strikes probably will soon be settled by a reasonable compromise between the Government and the State-employed workers that will carry the country at least through the summer vacations...
...The syndicates considered the offer insufficient and asked for further negotiations...
...Because fresh attempts on his life were feared, he went not by road but by air...
...The CGT joined the strike only after it was already under way, principally in order not to lose ground to the rival labor groups...
...Apparently inspired by the example of Pope John XXIII, West European Church leaders seem more and more to act as if they were engaged in an open battle with Moscow for the souls of their countries' industrial workers...
...Until the strikes, most Frenchmen considered de Gaulle an almighty ruler whose orders were beyond contradiction...
...What he overlooked was that, in this particular instance, he was not an arbiter between labor and management but a party to the conflict...
...De Gaulle knew this, of course...
...The result was not only a continuation of the strike but an entirely unexpected popular rebellion...
...The Archbishop was promptly called in by the prefect of the Moselle department and told that the President was highly displeased by the Church's interference in State affairs...
...At the moment, for example, there is a strike of workers in the large natural gas field of Lacq in the south, which supplies half the nation's current gas consumption...
...They drew 20 per cent higher wages than factory workers, enjoyed free housing, free medical care and special premiums on social security and family allotments...
...The Assembly's position was unmistakable: "Desirous of social peace, the cardinals and archbishops of France, meeting in regular session, wish to mark their accord with the bishops who [previously] have publicly expressed the position of the Church...
...Even if an enforcement of the requisition order had been technically feasible, it would have been psychologically impossible...
...As a gesture of solidarity, most of the engineers and other white-collar workers employed by the State mines stopped work...
...They are Gaullists from the bottom of their hearts...
...For a long time after World War II, they were a favored group among French industrial workers...
...Did he, as one French editorialist put it, make a regrettably wrong assessment of the miners' psychology and the true nature of power relations in France...
...In reality, the AFL-CIO was secretly financing the strike, "with the quiet backing of the State Department," through the channels of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions...
...The miners were ordered to return to the pits after 48 hours...
...They wanted an adjustment in cash as well as a cut in the working week from 48 to 40 hours...
...Such a settlement can be expected to satisfy General de Gaulle...
...They invite the faithful [to join in] the effort of fraternal mutual aid, which is, moreover, solicited from them by the Gospel itself...
...But two days later the Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops of France came to the support of its priests...
...He was absolutely certain that he only had to appeal to the miners' "patriotism" to make them forget their professional grievances...
...With opposition to the Government's heavy-handed treatment of its workers mounting, some Gaullists were quick to hint at a conspiracy of French "Europeans...
...In military terms, the mass disobedience of the miners bordered on mutiny...
...The "rights" for which the miners are fighting are, in reality, lost privileges...
...All of its statistics since October 1962 showed that, because wages had risen more rapidly than production for the past two years, France had entered a new inflationary spiral...
...They were not in any particular fighting mood, but when they learned of the General's decree, their attitude suddenly stiffened...
...As head of state, he was himself the "employer" resisting higher wages...
...Under these conditions, the Government decided to stage a tactical withdrawal...
...Traditionally, it is invoked only in cases of grave national emergency, and evaders are punished by fines and imprisonment...
...If they are not taken up soon, there will be renewed danger of Stateemployed workers in other industries going out on strike...
...Yet it would also represent a substantial victory for French labor, which would not only have won the bulk of its claims but also have managed to reduce the figure of Charles de Gaulle to human proportions...
...It is already apparent, however, that the Fifth Republic will never be the same again...
...The miners simply replied: "We know our duties, but we also know our rights...
...The Government's decree was issued under unusual and rather provocative circumstances...
...It was promulgated on Saturday afternoon, March 2, after President de Gaulle had left for Colombey-les-deuxEglises...
...Monsignor Joseph Schmitt, the Archbishop of Metz, and many other high Church dignitaries stood squarely behind the miners and chided the Government from their pulpits...
...As a result, the requisition decree carried the signature "Fait à Colombey, Charles de Gaulle," indicating in an almost monarchical fashion that the State was wherever its head happened to be...
...It was an open challenge to the President's authority, and he was empowered to move troops against the recalcitrants...
...In the eyes of many Parisian observers, this gesture was doubly gratuitous...
...Ordinarily no one is allowed to disturb him in his private retreat, but this time an exception was made...
...certainly, he was in no position to use the argument of "patriotism" and to order his men back to work without further discussion...
...In Lorraine, where a large number of the coal mines are located, almost the entire population sided with the gueules noires (black mugs...
...If he ever regains his old popularity, it will no longer be as a superman but as a leader who is loved because he, too, is fallible...
...Georce W. Herald is a veteran foreign correspondent based in Paris...
...Late last month, acting on the committee's recommendations, the Government offered the miners a wage increase of 7.4 per cent, 5.7 per cent of which they would get immediately...
...Contrary to what one would have expected, the strike movement was at first not supported by the Communistdominated Confédération Generali du Travail (CGT)—presumably on orders from Moscow...
...Others not only placed the blame on the Catholics and Socialists, but sensed a sinister plot on the part of American labor unions...
...Since their output was vital to France's recovery, the State did everything possible to ease their living conditions...
...Meanwhile, as a warning, they decided to stage a 48-hour protest strike...
...In January of this year, the miners' syndicates reported that their average wages—$100-200 a month—had fallen 11 per cent behind the normal level...
...Prices were going up, and there was a danger that any abrupt increase in the miners' pay would provoke a chain reaction of new wage requests in other State-owned industries...
...My Lorraine" had indeed voted 85 per cent in favor of de Gaulle in last November's referendum...
...And since the miners had planned to return to work after their two-day strike anyway, there actually had been no real need for the order...
...Why did the General fail to enforce his requisition decree...
...In effect, the French Catholic hierarchy took an even more outspoken stand in this social conflict than the Spanish Church leaders did during the miners' strike in Asturias last year...
...The mayors of over 200 mining towns declined to post the requisition order on the walls of their town halls...
...In the end, the Government offered the miners a raise of 5.7 per cent to be spread over 12 months, and a review of their situation in September 1963...
...By law, the order could have just as well been signed by the Premier, which would also have had the advantage of leaving de Gaulle a way out, if it was needed...
...In a public statement, it demanded a "quick and just solution" to the miners' conflict with the Government...
...In all the history of French labor, no one had ever attempted to call up the coal miners...
...For below the surface of French politics, the strike wave has caused the same kind of seismic shock as a firedamp explosion in a coal pit...
...And, if he had no intention of enforcing it, why did he ever issue it in the first place...
...But, reassured by the CGT'S hesitation, and feeling itself strong enough to take on the Christian labor union, it decided that now was the moment to get tough...
...Already officiais are speaking of the imposition of new indirect taxes, notably on fuel and tobacco, to finance the billion dollar outlay and hold inflation down...
...The committee was asked to examine how far wages in the public sector had fallen behind those in the private sector and to recommend adjustments...
...The Government was anxious to do something for the miners, but it was also wary of inflation...
Vol. 46 • April 1963 • No. 7
