Strikebound

The biggest strike wave since 1948 rolled over France last week. Forming first in the West, where rioting Saint-Nazaire shipbuilders broke through for a big pay increase, the movement swept 150,000 provincial workers into "revolving" strikes of staccato stoppages, protest marches and slowdowns. Foundrymen walked out in Chauny, metalworkers struck in Montluc,on, and at Nantes, 15,000 locked-out strikers surged every morning against shipyard gates demanding the same terms granted in Saint-Nazaire. At least a score of French industrial cities in the South, and Southeast were hit.

By week's end the breaker had washed over Paris, swamping the capital's transport system. The city's green and white buses stopped running. Most subway lines were knocked out. On the trains that did run, customers rode free because all ticket-takers were on strike. Though authorities offered 5% wage increases and non-Communist trade union leaders accepted, the Communist-line faction of the divided labor movement prevailed. Buses stayed in their barns. With neither metro nor bus service operating, Parisians took to their automobiles and caused the biggest traffic jam in the city's history.

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