FRANCE: STRIKERS OCCUPY LAID-UP LINER AND DISRUPT AIRPORT ON SAME DAY AS MASS STUDENT DEMONSTRATION IN PARIS.

Record ID: 342249

  • Title: FRANCE: STRIKERS OCCUPY LAID-UP LINER AND DISRUPT AIRPORT ON SAME DAY AS MASS STUDENT DEMONSTRATION IN PARIS.
  • Date: 19th March 1976
  • Summary: 1. GV France anchored by coastline 0.05 2. SV ZOOM IN ON Police on quayside 0.11 3. GV Sign saying "Parisien Libere, negociations" PAN TO another sing of France 0.16 4. SVs Officials boarding ship and alongside (2 shots) 0.27 5. GV Aircraft on tarmac at Orly Airport 0.32 6. SV INT Deserted terminal building (3 shots) 0.43 7. SV Demonstrators marching outside airport building with strike banner 0.50 8. SV Massed Demonstrators with banners marching through Paris street (4 shots) 1.14 9. GTV Demonstration in progress 1.18 Initials BB/1815 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 3rd April 1976 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LE HAVRE AND PARIS, FRANCE
  • Country: France
  • Reuters ID: LVACBHRGJT71SOBS1K4WI6Q16SU1
  • Story Text: Striking printers occupied the giant luxury liner, France, lying idle off Le Havre, France on Thursday (18 March) to publicise their unsettled year-old industrial dispute.

    About 150 workers from the popular daily newspaper Le Parisien Libere boarded the 66,348 ton liner which was laid up two years ago because of heavy losses.

    The strikers have been occupying Le Parisien Libere's main printing plant in Paris for a year in protest at an economy drive plan designed to cut out several hundred jobs.

    Since the strike began the printers have held a series of dramatic protests to press their demands. They have occupied the twin towers of Notre Dame cathedral for a day, invaded the Paris Bourse (stock exchange) during trading and been the centre of eight 24-hour stoppages by the national press.

    On the same day passengers had to walk at the three Paris airports when a 24-hour strike by administrative staff stopped escalators, lifts, arrival and departure boards and baggage controls. The strikes are demanding higher wages.

    On Thursday's day of strikes -- which also included stoppages by train drivers demanding higher pay -- students in Paris staged a mass demonstration in protest against proposed educational reforms.

    The demonstrators -- estimated at between 12 to 15 thousand -- fought with police on the Left Bank of the River Seine, damaging shops and parked cars.

    They first smashed shop windows in St. Germain-des-Pres, where 23 policemen were injured during a similar demonstration on Wednesday (17 March).

    Then shop windows were broken in the nearby Rue de Rennes, and damage later extended to the Montparnasse Tower, a skyscraper block often criticised for spoiling the Paris skyline.

    Student leaders issued a statement after the demonstration, deploring the incidents and blaming them on about 100 people at the head of the march.
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