In the last throes of a searing election campaign, French politicians hardly noted a significant democratic victory on another front. In spite of fierce opposition from the Communist-run C.G.T., the biggest labor organization in France, the Catholic Christian Trade Union (C.F.T.C.) and the Socialists (Force Ou-vriere) signed a contract with the nationalized coal mines giving graduated pay rises based on productivity, with paid vacations to 250,000 miners. The next day 10,000 aeronautical engineering workers won a similar contract. Both agreements are modeled on the one signed more than three months ago with the nationalized Renault auto plant, France's biggest.
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