FRANCE: Giscard's Gamble

It began last month with a minor dispute over a change in shifts in one Paris mail-sorting station. But by last week France was facing its worst labor unrest since the protests of May 1968 that nearly toppled Charles de Gaulle. The postal spat quickly developed into a strike that spread to the entire mail system, paralyzing thousands of dependent businesses. In the past fortnight meanwhile, coal miners, railway men, electric-utility workers, hospital employees, customs officials, Paris bus drivers and even veterinarians have walked off their jobs for at least a day....

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