Valenciennes, Feb. 16.
Dissatisfied with their working conditions, 25,000 workers of the iron and steel industry in Valenciennes, fortified city in northern France, and the neighbourhood have unanimously voted to declare a sit-down strike as from: to-morrow, The workers include 4,000 engaged in national defence works and 2,000 employed in a gun factory The decision to call a general strike of iron and steel labourers in the Department clu Nord was carried after the rejection, for the first time. since the Matignon agreement came into being, of an arbitral award.
Valenciennes was occupied by the Germans during the Great War, and was taken by the Canadians in 1918.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.