18 Jan 2006

Members of dissolved French Polynesian GIP force drop strike threat

6:19 pm on 18 January 2006

A strike warning by some members of the dissolved French Polynesian GIP intervention force has been withdrawn after employment issues were settled.

The president of the territory's government dissolved the organisation last week and its members have been given new state-paid jobs.

The former GIP members who belong to the so-called Solidarity union have now accepted the reorganisation and lifted their threat to go on strike.

The GIP was set up in the 1990's by the former government of Gaston Flosse.

It rebelled repeatedly against the new government of Oscar Temaru last year by blocking Tahiti's main port.