France Telecom: Under 20% of French Staff on Strike

PARIS -(Dow Jones)- France Telecom, France's incumbent telecommunications operator, Tuesday said that slightly under 20% of its French employees were on strike at midday.

A France Telecom spokesman said the walkout wasn't having a negative impact on the functioning of the operator's networks.

France Telecom workers are joining a broader strike by civil servants in France, protesting job cuts announced by the government in public services. The walkouts Tuesday come on the seventh day of nationwide public transport strikes against government plans for pension reform.

Unions at France Telecom, the former state-controlled telecommunications monopoly, are unhappy with the company's plans to cut 17,000 jobs in the group between 2006 and 2008, 16,000 of them in France.

The SUD union at France Telecom, one of the six that called on members to strike Tuesday, said in a statement Tuesday that "the strike has been a big success, showing the staffs demands on purchasing power as well as its resolute opposition to the policy of eliminating jobs which is being implemented by management."

By Jethro Mullen, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1738; jethro.mullen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 20th November 2007