Representatives of the French government left the negotiating table Monday night, saying they were not prepared to meet the strikers' demand for a euro200 ($250) monthly raise for those making euro900 ($1,130) a month.
"The state doesn't believe that it should finance or reimburse wage increases for private employers," Nicolas Desforges, the island's top Paris-appointed official, told reporters. He said the representatives were awaiting new instructions from Paris before they would return.
Leaders of the strike-leading Collective Against Exploitation said they had reached a tentative agreement with small business groups to meet half the requested raise but that the rest would have to come from the government.
Meanwhile, protesters prepared to take the dispute back to streets where riots raged last week, pushing burnt-out cars back into intersections and erecting new roadblocks on major highways.
"If they don't want to talk, we will put the popular pressure on the streets and make them share their fortune with the people of Guadeloupe," Patrice Tacita, a Collective Against Exploitation official, told hundreds of supporters in front of the seaside port authority building where negotiations are taking place.
Last week, rioters smashed windows, burned cars and threw rocks at police, who fired tear gas. Union leader Jacques Bino was shot and killed, apparently by rioting youths, in an incident still being investigated.
The workers have been striking since Jan. 20, tapping widespread resentment over the control that descendants of slave holders hold over much of the island's economy. Strikes also have taken place on the nearby French island of Martinique.
The labor collective has a list of nearly 140 demands including the wage increase, covering issues from lowering the cost of imported goods to environmental and judicial reform.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week announced a euro million ($730 million) financial package to help development in France's overseas regions.
But Sarkozy remains unpopular in Guadeloupe, where his response to the global financial crisis, including bank bailouts, was seen as management-friendly.
"They give plenty of money to the banks to face the crisis, they must make an effort for the consumers too," collective negotiator Harry Durimel said.
Shops in the principal city of Pointe-a-Pitre opened briefly on Monday for the first time in more than a month, but metal storefront gates came crashing down as the marchers approached waving red flags and pumping their fists.
