8A
Monday, December 4. 1995
NATION/WORLD
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Transportation strike slows France
Government hires buses to get commuters to Paris
The Associated Press
PARIS — Faced with a massive strike that risks shutting down the French economy, the government said yesterday that it was hiring 1,000 private buses so millions of commuters could get to work.
Even the company that runs Paris' famed "Bateaux Mouches" tour boats said it will provide free shuttle service along the Seine so Parisians could get around. The three tour boats have 1,000 seats each.
Railroad, public transportation, postal and utility workers have been striking for 10 days to protest the government's austerity measures, and yesterday, their leaders urged private-sector workers to join them the next day.
Nevertheless, the conservative government, determined to stick to its tough belt-tightening plan, isn't backing down.
Employees of the French domestic airline Air Inter, the telephone company, tax and customs agencies already had decided to strike beginning today.
To slash its huge budget deficit, the government is freezing all wages for its 5 million public employees and extending by 2 1/2 years to 40 the number of years they must pay into the social security system before retiring. That would bring them in line with private-sector
workers.
To get around the transport strike, fleets of buses will bring suburban commuters to a dozen points in Paris starting this morning and bring them back in the evening, said government spokesman Alain Lamassoure.
The walkout by train, subway and bus drivers has had the most crippling effect. Commuters can't get to work, department stores are empty in the peak Christmas shopping season and factories are idled by the lack of cargo normally shipped by train.
"Our sales have plunged 60 percent in the past week. That means we are being literally asphyxiated," said Philip Vindry, director of Printemps, a major department store.
labor — called on private-sector workers to join today's strike. If that happens, Premier Alain Juppe's austerity plan could be shelved. He may even be forced to resign.
"This is a radicalization. I will now ask virtually all sectors of the economy to progressively
"Our sales have plummeted 60 percent in the past week. That means we are literally being asphyxiated."
Industry Minister Franck Borotra said small businesses have seen their sales cut in half. "France needs to work," he said.
major department store chain.
In the northeastern city of Mulhouse, the car maker Peugeot has laid off 7,000 workers because new cars were piling up with no trains to ship them out.
Two major unions — Workers Force and the communist-led General Confederation of
Philippe Vindry
Department store director
join the strike," said Workers Force leader Marc Blondel. "Our position is simple: withdrawal of the Juppe plan."
Most unions this weekend refused offers to discuss the plan aimed at revamping France's indebted Social Security health and retirement system. They want it rescinded outright.
ment is banking on the assumption that most French believe the belt-tightening is necessary to slash France's $65 billion budget deficit.
But the govern-
While public workers are highly unionized, overall only 10 percent of French workers are. It's unclear whether millions of French, fed up with high taxes and now the paralyzing transportation strikes, will vent their frustration by joining the walkout.
The Associated Press
Pope canonizes French priest
VATICAN CITY — A noble-born Frenchman who founded a missionary order that worked with American Eskimos and Indians is the Roman Catholic Church's newest saint.
Eugene de Mazenod was canonized yesterday, the 274th saint proclaimed by Pope John Paul II in his 17-year papacy.
Among those who attended yesterday's ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica was a Mexican man the Vatican says was cured of cancer after praying to de Mazenod — one of two miracles attributed to the new saint.
De Mazenod was born in Aix-en-Provence in 1782 and fled with his family to Italy to escape the upheaval of the French Revolution. He returned to France, determined to help the unfortunate. He was ordained a priest at 29 and begun working with the poor.
In 1816, he established the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, an order he continued to guide even after becoming bishop of Marseille.
The order's first missionaries
set out in 1841 for Alaska and western Canada. Later, other missionaries worked in southern Africa and on the island now called Sri Lanka.
Nearly 5,000 missionaries work for the order today in places such as schools and hospitals in Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories, said the Rev. Nicola Ferrara at the congregation's headquarters in Rome.
One miracle is required for someone to be beatified, the last main step before sainthood, and a second miracle is required for canonization.
The next miracle occurred in Mexico City in 1986, the Vatican ruled.
Doctors discharged Jesus Serrano Fernandez from a hospital to die at home of liver cancer. Parishoners gathered nightly in his home to pray to de Mazenod for help.
One morning, the man got up, asked to eat and miraculously recovered, Ferrara said.
Serrano Fernandez, his wife and children attended yesterday's ceremony, the priest said.
De Mazenod died in 1861.
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The Lawrence Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees Invites Public Comment On the Issues Facing Our Community Hospital
for review at these locations:
Baldwin Public Library
This document is available for review at these locations:
- Baldwin Public Library
- Lawrence Chamber of Commerce
- Lawrence Public Library
- Eudora Public Library
- Lawrence Senior Center
If you would like to receive a copy please send your written request to Robert B. Ohlen, President & CEO Lawrence Memorial Hospital 325 Maine, Lawrence, KS 66044 or FAX your request to (913)749-6126
Also on the Internet for review & download @ http://www.ljworld.com
LAWRENCE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT NOVEMBER 1995
Prepared at the request of Howard E. Mossberg, Chairperson Board of Trustees
Public Hearings
LMH Auditorium
- 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec.20
- 6:30 p.m.Monday, Jan.8
We ask that your comments be concise and limited to not more than 5 minutes. For your convenience, please enter the hospital campus from Arkansas Street and park in one of the lots directly northwest of the hospital. Follow the signs and enter the Auditorium through the door on the north side. Thanks for your patience during construction.
- Written comments are also encouraged prior to Jan.10,1996
LMH Board of Trustees
Howard Mossberg, Chairperson Raymond G. Davis, Vice Chairperson Donna M. Bell, Secretary Kay Kent, Treasurer
Robert C. Johnson Ken Martinez Joanne E.Hurst Bob Schulte Joseph Harkins