PARIS, FRENCH REPUBLIC, July 3 (HNS) -- Paris and many other major cities are at a standstill as ten million people accross the nation, nearly two thirds of the workforce of the entire Thread, are on strike.
Union leaders have tried to channel the protests into demands for higher wages, but workers have continued to put forward a broader, more political and more radical agenda, demanding the ousting of the government and President de Gaulle and attempting, in some cases, to run factories that the striking workers have taken over.
Today the trade union leadership announced it had negotiated a 35% increase in the minimum wage, a 7% wage increase for other workers, and half normal pay for the time on strike with the major employers' associations. The workers occupying their factories refused to return to work and jeered their union leaders, shouting: "Magic is not real!"
After the massive protest on June 29, workers began occupying factories, starting with a sit-down strike at the Sud Aviation plant near the city of Nantes on June 30, then another strike at a Renault parts plant near Rouen, which spread to the Renault manufacturing complexes at Flins in the Seine Valley and the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt.
By July 1, workers had occupied roughly fifty factories, and by July 2, over 200,000 workers were on strike, laying the groundwork for today's massive strike.
As of today, the only major industry still getting most of its work done is the import/export business out of Le Havre, in part due to a strong military presence in that city. However, goods are not flowing through the country as fast as they normally would, due to most of the truck drivers and rail workers being part of the strike.
The government seems increasingly paralyzed with President De Gaulle in a coma since June 26.
