November 28, 1996
FRENCH TRUCKERS VOTE TO EXTEND STRIKE
PARIS (Reuter) - Striking truck drivers voted to keep
up their 11-day stranglehold on the French economy on
Thursday, defying government calls to return to work
after talks with bosses collapsed over pay demands.
Truckers maintained almost 250 barricades on
main roads and tightened a blockade of the oil industry
after talks broke down around midnight. The strike has
brought petrol rationing in some areas, closed
factories and stranded hundreds of foreign trucks.
Unions said grassroots truckers consulted
about the outcome of marathon government-brokered talks
with employers were voting to stay on strike despite
repeated calls by Transport Minister Bernard Pons to go
back to work.
Pons said most truckers' demands had been met
and that the government mediator had successfully ended
his mission.
"We've got the result of the votes from the
barricades in15 to 20 sectors -- about a fifth of
France -- and it's 100 percent for continuing the
action," said Michel Fleurot, strike coordinator for
France's biggest union, the pro-Socialist CFDT.
Other unions, noting a gulf with employers
over demands for pay rises, said the trend among their
members was the same.
"Perhaps the truckers don't have a good
perception of reality," Pons told a news conference.
"In a compromise, you can't get everything you want."
"Very positive results were obtained," he
said.
Pons said the two sides had agreed to cut the
retirement age to 55 from 60 and reached accords on
working time and sick pay, even though there was still
discord over pay.
He ruled out using force to clear the
truckers' roadblocks on highways, at ports, borders,
refineries and fuel depots.
Pons said that despite the break in
negotiations, a group made up of representatives of
unions and employers would try to tackle the
controversial issue of what could be defined -- and
consequently paid -- as working time for drivers.
Some firms pay drivers differently according
to whether they are actually driving on the road or
waiting to load or unload.
There is also confusion as to what rates of
pay apply to long-distance drivers during rest time
they enjoy after unloading and before returning home or
loading again.
Pons warned that "if this working group does
not agree quickly, I will propose to the government
that we settle the issue by decree."
Leaders of main unions -- the CFDT, the
Communist-led CGT and the non-partisan Force Ouvriere -
- all told workers to stick to their roadblocks.
The state traffic information center counted
240 blockades on major highways around midday Thursday,
slightly down from 247 Wednesday. Snow and sleet fell
overnight in some areas.
Strikers completed a blockade of oil
refineries with barricades outside the only one of 13
that had escaped the strike so far, an industry
ministry official said. About half the country's 400
fuel depots were blocked.
Force Ouvriere leader Marc Blondel appealed to
the government to make one more mediation attempt.
"Talks must continue," he told Europe 1 radio. "The big
problem is wages."
The CGT said "the government is alone in
considering the talks ended in a success allowing it to
withdraw its mediator."
A CGT statement said the move effectively
blessed the employers' refusal to grant bigger wage
hikes.
Secretary of state for transport Anne-Marie
Idrac said unions and employers could hold wage talks
without mediator Robert Cros. "The dialogue is not
broken," she told France 2 television. "The mediation
has been successful...Most demands have been satisfied
even though the question of wages remains."
Haulage firms were offering a one percent
raise and a one-off bonus of 1,500 francs ($300).
Unions are demanding pay increases that amount to an
average 23 percent.
The roadblocks have forced closure of some
factories and cut supplies of perishable goods ranging
from fish to fruit. Farmers reported shortages of
animal feed as grain shipments were hit.
The strike was also disrupting mail
deliveries.
The strike and a parallel one in Denmark
caused problems in other European countries, clogging
highways and ports and disrupting commerce. Ports in
neighboring Belgium were clogged by trucks seeking an
alternative ferry crossing to Britain.
