chairman of the UIMM that workers were gaining more awareness of their collective power. The effects of mobilization, relocation of factories, exemption of armament workers from the draft, improved working conditions and wage increases would all be to increase the postwar collective strength of the workers. French industry must respond by organizing its own forces to gain government concessions. In the post-war period the UIMM acted in effect as the instrument of the Comité des forges for handling social issues. In 1919 Robert Pinot was secretary of both organizations. Pinot represented French industry at the International Labour Organization (ILO) and was Vice-President of the National Economic Council. In the early 1920s Albert Thomas and Edgard Milhaud of the ILO proposed to develop expertise on the links between social and economic problems. As the delegate representing the French employers, Pinot despised the proposal, which he called "social control of the economy." Early in 1920 there was an acute shortage of coal in France and a political crisis in Germany with disturbances in the demilitarized Ruhr. Germany sent troops into the Ruhr to restore peace, and on 6 April 1920 French troops occupied the Maingau: Frankfurt, Darmstadt and Offenbach. Two days later Pinot wrote to President Millerand informing him the British had cut off coal supplies to France using the threat of a miners' strike as an excuse, and with the Ruhr production of coal halted the French steel industry faced a severe and growing crisis. He asked that the government take action to prevent closure of the furnaces. In February 1920 there was also a brief railway strike over labour grievances, settled within two days but leaving bad feelings between both sides. The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) decided that they would demonstrate for nationalization of the railways with a strike starting on May Day. Marcel Peschaud, secretary-general of the Paris-Orléans company, discussed with Pinot the possibility of organizing professional groups and Chambers of Commerce to demand laws that would make strikes against public services illegal. German demand for iron from Lorraine plummeted after the war. By 1922 total demand was just a tenth of the pre-war demand from the Ruhr alone. Contributing factors were the growing use of the Siemens-Martin process of open hearth furnaces for recycling scrap steel combined with availability of war material to be recycled. In early 1922 Pinot explained to Camille Cavallier of the steelworks at