GUADELOUPE STRIKE ENDS

French government agrees to wage increases for low income earners.



BASSE-TERRE, Guadeloupe, CMC - France has given in to demands for wage increases in the hope of ending a month-long strike that has crippled this French speaking Caribbean island.



Following all-night negotiations in Paris, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the French government would offer support payments to low-income earners totalling almost EUR200 (US$250) per month, as demanded by unions.



Fillon said he would submit the plan to employers and labor unions Thursday.



\"I hope this will meet the demands for measures to address the high cost of living in the West Indies,\" Fillon said on radio.



The offer was to be made to the Collective Against Exploitation, a coalition of unions that launched the strike on January 20.



Angry protestors in Guadeloupe have mounted pressure on the Sarkozy administration in recent weeks to do something about the rising cost of living.

Most shops, banks, schools and government offices have been shut in Guadeloupe and neighbouring Martinique, where a similar demonstrations began on February 5.

In Guadeloupe where the impact has been greater, demonstrations have degenerated into violence, leading to the death earlier this week of one protester.



Since then, the French government has dispatched over 200 military officers to the Caribbean in a bid to restore calm.



However, the protests worsened here overnight with police reporting the arrest of 33 people in violent clashes which occurred between Wednesday night and early Thursday.



Several businesses were also torched during the rampage that came ahead of a scheduled meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy and elected officials from France’s overseas departments in Paris to discuss the problematic situation that has stalled commercial activity in both Martinique and Guadeloupe.