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TRUCKERS' PROTEST & STRIKES WORLDWIDE
* Spain - Police clear truckers' blockade over gas costs
Madrid,Spain -AP/USA Today -12 June 2008: -- Spain deployed riot police on Wednesday to lift striking truckers' blockades of a border crossing with France and a major highway outside Madrid and made dozens of arrests... The independent drivers are demanding a minimum guaranteed rate for their services. The Socialist government refuses, saying that would interfere with free-market competition... The riot police intervention was peaceful in La Junquera, but in Madrid, police arrested 34 strikers, the minister said. All told, 51 people have been arrested since the strike started and police vehicles have escorted nearly 3,000 trucks transporting food, fuel and other goods, he said... In other apparently strike-related violence, fire destroyed four trucks and damaged a fifth at an industrial park near the eastern city of Alicante before dawn Wednesday. Officials said they did not rule out the possibility that the fire was set deliberately. A driver who was sleeping in his vehicle when it caught fire suffered serious burns. .. The Spanish government agreed Tuesday night with a large, non-striking trucking union on a package of tax relief and other measures to help the industry. The package was presented Wednesday to three unions representing the strikers, but they rejected it, said Julio Villaescusa, president of one those unions,calledFenadismer... (Photo by Denis Doyle/Getty Images - Police remove trucks blocking the highway in Madrid in protest of fuel prices on the third day of the Spanish transport strike on Wednesday * Thousands of European truckers join fuel protests
Madrid,Spain -AFP -11 June 2008: -- Spain's second largest hauliers' union Fenadismer, which claims to represent 70,000 out of Spain's 380,000 truck drivers, launched an open-ended strike on Monday. It said it was "peaceful" but followed "massively"... Talks Monday between the hauliers and the government ended in failure, Fenadismer said... (Photo 1. Two men raise their fists in support of truck drivers blocking traffic on the motorway into Madrid)
French truckers struggling with high fuel costs staged fresh protests near the Spanish border and in the southwest.... Several trucks from the southern city of Perpignan disrupted traffic at border posts, preventing trucks from crossing and causing a tailback of some 10 kilometres (six miles) on both sides of the border... Protestors branded banners which read: "Trucker = Unemployed," and "It's the end of our profession."... (Photo 2. Truck drivers block traffic on the motorway into Madrid)
Portugal's Transport Minister Mario Lino was to meet later Monday with representatives of road transport associations in a bid to end the strike by truckers who have threatened to "paralyze" the country... According to police, trucks parked at petrol pumps were stoned overnight or while they were on the road after the strike started at midnight... The strikers also blocked entrances to several factories. According to industry figures, there are some 40,000 truckers in Portugal serving an estimated 5,000 firms... (Photo 3. FRANA traffic policeman stands in front of truck drivers blocking traffic)* Spain - Trucks clog highways on 2nd day of strike over fuel prices
Madrid,Spain -The International Herald Tribune (Paris,FR)/AP -June 10, 2008: -- Truckers angry over soaring fuel prices blocked highways across Spain on Tuesday, disrupting supplies of food, gasoline, auto parts and other goods. One protester was killed when he was run over by a van trying to drive through a picket in a southern city... Three auto plants — one each from Nissan, Mercedes Benz and SEAT — said they were suspending operations for lack of spare parts. And some gasoline stations in Madrid and the northeastern Catalonia region already have run out of fuel... Vendors warned of shortages of fruit, vegetables and meat this week at Madrid's sprawling wholesale market, Mercamadrid, if the strike continues... (AFP Photo: Truck drivers block traffic on the motorway out of Madrid as they demonstrate against rising fuel prices)* UK - Truckers demand action over soaring costs
Edinburgh,UK -The Scotsman -10 June 2008: -- Angry truckers took to the streets today to demand Government action to ease soaring fuel costs... More than 80 trucks travelled in convoy from Glasgow to Edinburgh where they handed in a letter at the Scottish Parliament... Taxis also joined the convoy on the M8 motorway, complaining their fuel prices had gone up by £30 per week per driver in recent months... When they reached the capital, the truckers staged a go-slow, crawling through the city streets at 15mph... Bill McIntosh, of the Scottish Taxi Federation, said: "In terms of fuel costs alone, over the last six months or so it has increased by 25 times – £30 per week, per driver."... One of the trucks displayed a sign which read: "I'm no fuel fool."... Another read "Broon back doon"... (Picture: Jane Barlow - A convoy of lorries travel the M8 from Glasgow to Edinburgh) * Portugal - Two truck drivers die as fuel protests spread across Europe
Madrid,Spain -AFP by Olivier Thibault -Jun 10, 2008: -- Two lorry drivers were killed on picket lines in Spain and Portugal on Tuesday as strikes by thousands of truckers over soaring fuel prices turned deadly... A Portuguese driver was killed after he was hit by a truck as he manned a barricade filtering traffic near Alcanena, north of Lisbon...
Labels: strikes and protests
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