newspapers

Thousands joined street protests in Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities.

The 24 hour strike left many schools closed, hospitals providing a reduced service and newsagents without newspapers.

The BBC reported that the French capital's two airports and Marseille airport in the south suffered delays and cancellations.

A packed chapel meeting voted unanimously for the move after exhausting the newspaper's internal disputes procedures in a long-running row over non-replacement of leavers or long delays in getting vacancies filled.

Workers at the paper are concerned about plans by its owner Pearson, to sell it to LMVH. LMVH is currently the owner of La Tribune, Les Echos' less popular rival. Although LMVH is currently trying to sell La Tribune and its head, Bernard Arnault has pledged to sell La Tribune if he does buy Les Echos.

No editions of the paper Nice-Matin or its sister titles Var-Matin and Corse-Matin were produced this Saturday. Staff took action due to a proposed sale of the group by its parent company, Lagardère, the proposed buyer, the Le Monde group, plans to merge these regional titles (and others) and printing operations.

Good leaflet with questions and answers about immigration and asylum seekers to the UK. It examines common perceptions, where they come from, whether they are accurate, who is spreading them and why. In text and PDF.

In 1922 the majority of the membership of the councilist union the AAUE (United General Workers Union) of Zwickau was expelled because of their participation in the works councils in the railway workshops and the mines. This majority retained control of the AAUE paper, Weltkampf, so the remainder of the Zwickau AAUE founded the paper Proletarischer Zeitgeist (Proletarian Spirit of the Times).

Since the move, working practices for NUJ members have included 24/7 working rotas, and 54 compulsory redundancies. The NUJ claims these changes form part of a long running growth of anger and dissatisfaction among staff at the national paper, where management have ignored or overidden complaints and grievances by the staff.

Direct Action, later a monthly magazine, was first published by the US-founded Industrial Workers of the World union in Sydney in January 1914. They borrowed some dough from a member and bought themselves an archaic printing press so that all restraints upon expression of ‘clear cut revolutionary principles’ were removed.

"Not since the days of the Industrial Workers of the World, since the days of Joe Hill and the battle for the eight-hour day, has a North American union movement been so dedicated to the tradition of revolutionary syndicalism."

A short account by one worker in a local UK newspaper of a successful NUJ unionisation drive he was involved in in 2006

Toulouse Office of Emplyoment & Work occupied
Le Figaro is reporting that several dozen high school and university students have occupied the buildings of the Haute-Garonne departements Office of Employment and Work this afternoon in an anti-CPE protest.

Ouest France hit by strike action

A one-day strike by carriers at a distribution contractor for the Chicago Tribune delayed deliveries of the Sunday paper for an estimated 6,000 home delivery customers.

The wildcat strike also affected delivery of Sunday copies of The New York Times and weekend editions of The Financial Times.