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TRUCKERS' STRIKES WORLDWIDE * S. Korea - High oil prices forcing truck drivers out of business
Truckers’ union plans to strike unless the gov’t imposes prices controls on transport fares
Seoul,South Korea -The Hankyorek(Seoul,SK) -27 May 2008: -- Jeong Yeong-jeong, 37, who has been a truck driver for 15 years, says that he is in the worst situation he has ever had to face. Round-trip freight fares from Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, to Seoul are about 600,000 won (US$ 571), but Jeong receives just about 50,000 won for the overnight trip, which takes two days and one night... The price of the diesel fuel needed to complete the trip has risen sharply to about 490,000 won, from a little more than 220,000 won in the previous year. He earns almost nothing after paying 50,000 won for the toll and 30,000 won for food. He also pays 200,000 won a month to the company and for insurance, and has to cover the cost of changing the oil or tires on his truck. Oil prices have skyrocketed to around 2,000 won per liter from 1,100 won in a year, but the freight fees have stayed almost the same, he says... For this reason, Jeong, an official of the Korean Transport Workers’ Union, said that he and about 180 colleagues, who are also truck drivers, had to stop working for eight days through May 26. Like Jeong, an increasing number of transport workers have had to stop driving or have gone on strike thinking that they would suffer even more losses by continuing to drive their trucks due to the hike in diesel prices. They are urging the company to apply price controls on transport fares based on the current price of oil and increase freight fees by 23.4 percent. LG Electronics-affiliate Hi Logistics recently suggested an increase of 6.6 percent, making negotiations difficult... About 100 companies across the nation are at odds with logistics firms over freight fares like this. More than 100 truckers belonging to the Gwangju branch of the truckers’ union, or Cargo Solidarity are waging a sit-in in front of a Samsung Electronics factory in Gwangju. Unless Samsung accepts their demand to increase transport fees, they say they will go on a strike sometime in the next month... But the high price of fuel is not the only problem the truck drivers face. There are some people who siphon fuel from the parked trucks at night, leading some of the drivers to sleep in their trucks. Highway toll fees are expected to increase soon as well, adding to their misery. The drivers say they are ready to go on a strike at the risk of losing their livelihoods entirely... Cargo Solidarity says that its members will go on strike in June, unless the government takes action... (Photo: Members of the Changwon branch of the Korean Transport Workers’ Union in South Gyeongsang Province are waging a strike due to the high price of diesel fuel)* USA - Arkansas truck stop owner joins fuel protest
Little Rock,ARK,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Reed Black -May 28, 2008: -- The owner of an Arkansas truck stop has stopped pumping diesel and gas, saying he’s protesting prices along with truckers. Don Shamsie’s Blackwell Truck Stop is on Interstate 40 about 30 miles north of Little Rock... Shamsie added: “We’ve taken a stand to stop selling fuel to see if we can get the attention of the politicians who we felt have sold Americans out.”... Shamsie said he thinks most politicians are in the pocket of the oil companies that contribute to their campaigns... As for how he’ll survive without pumping fuel, Shamsie pointed out that at the price he’s been paying for fuel and for credit card transactions he wasn’t making money anyway...
* Holland - Dutch truckers honk horns in fuel price protest
The Hague,The Netherlands,Holland -Reuters, by Svebor Kranjc, Emma Thomasson, and Mary Gabriel - May 29, 2008: -- Dutch truckers called on motorists on Thursday to honk their horns to push for lower fuel taxes in the latest protest at soaring oil prices... Organisations representing logistic companies parked a huge truck outside parliament and handed over a petition to politicians calling on the government to reverse a diesel tax hike that is due to take effect on July 1... Truckers displayed illuminated road signs around the country urging motorists to honk their horns in solidarity... Separately, a group has collected more than 112,000 signatures online demanding the reversal of a tax that has been levied on fuel since a budget crisis in 1991... "We complain a lot but we do nothing. We should follow the example of the English truckers. And when the taxes rise in France, motorists block the streets. Then the politicians listen," organiser Robert Andringa told ... Bulgarian truck drivers rallied on Wednesday, following the lead of British and French truckers and French fishermen in a wave of demonstrations and blockades by groups which say fuel costs threaten their livelihoods... EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said on Wednesday euro zone finance ministers would not back such tax changes...
Labels: truckers' strikes
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