The strike at Radio France Internationale (RFI) was suspended on Friday at a mass meeting of journalists, technical and other staff. Unions leading the action say they will relaunch industrial action in September in their efforts to fight a management plan to axe 206 jobs. if a settlement is not reached before then.

At nine weeks the strike has been the longest in the history of broadcasting in France since the 1968 general strike.

Not all unions supported the strike but those that did proposed to a mass meeting on Friday to suspend the action until September.  

Representatives of the striking unions, along with management, are to meet officials from the Ministry of Culture on Friday afternoon. They hailed this as "a kind of negotiation" of the sort they say they have been demanding for weeks.

The action has been selective. Key workers have taken action to disrupt broadcasts, with their earnings made up from collections by supporters of the strike who were still working.Strike leaders stressed that they have not accepted management's plan to axe over 200 jobs and describe the suspension as a "summer truce". They say that they do not want to "penalise" free-lance journalists and workers on short-term contracts, who become more numerous in summer.

A management communiqué welcomed the move, calling the strike a "danger for the radio station".

Tony Cross on "RFI STRIKE"

"The French know how to strike," comments Gary Harrison on Facebook, after reading our report of carworkers who threatened to blow up their factory if they weren't offered higher lay-off pay.

They've withdrawn the threat now, at least for the moment, amid debate as to whether they really meant it or whether they were just trying to get into the headlines. If it was the latter, their ambition was certainly fulfilled.Nicholas J Evancik agrees with Gary. In fact his remark brings another industrial dispute to his mind."I have been missing the English-language service of RFI because of a strike action," he says.

But, he adds, "I support their strike, but not being able to listen to the English broadcasts was a bit of a loss, primarily because of the high quality of RFI's news coverage."

The RFI strike is now suspended but could start again in the autumn if  no agreement is reached before then.

Reactions to the dispute were varied.

"Time to settle or something!" wrote Murielle Hunt from Peoria in the US. "This is going on too long for a radio station! And I love the programs! Maybe your union people are not that good!"

But others enthusiastically backed the action. One Italian fan set up a blog supporting the strike in several languages [...]