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French Railway Controllers Strike in Alsace
The railway controllers in France's eastern region of Alsace began a five-day strike Friday to protest the punishment of their fellow workers by the state railway company SNCF for blocking rails in another strike.
The strike, which will last through the whole New Year's season, will partly paralyze the regional lines but not affect the long distance lines except that between Strasbourg and Lyon, said Agence France-Presse.
The SNCF has decided to suspend for two days the duty of 68 railway controllers for illegally blocking the rails in Strasbourg on December 2 according to proper laws.
But the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) labor union accused the SNCF of applying a 1942 decree adopted by the Vichy collaboration regime to punish the French Resistance fighters who attacked Nazi death and military convoys.
The SNCF said that the decree dated back to a 19th century law and was developed into "the Statutes of Railway Workers" in 1969 under President Charles de Gaulle.
The state bans workers from removing without permit, or disturbing and damaging railways tracks and other equipment.
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