----- Original Message ----- From: Per Rasmussen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Marxist-Leninist-List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 9:27 PM Subject: [MLL]MORE ON AUSTRALIAN TRUCKERS FUEL STRIKE ----------------------- Yours in solidarity Per Rasmussen Familien Rasmussen http://home0.inet.tele.dk/pera/ Cuba SI! http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900388/ Viden er Magt! - Magten til folket! http://w1.1559.telia.com/~u155900373/ Fwd: MORE ON AUSTRALIAN TRUCKERS FUEL STRIKE ******************************************************************** from the SYDNEY [NEW SOUTH WALES STATE, AUSTRALIA] MORNING HERALD: Truckie mum hits the road to lead protest about survival Date: 23/09/2000 By PHILIP CORNFORD When Lyn Bennetts speaks, tough truck drivers listen with respect. In these times of hardship, the Albury mother of three has emerged as one of their leaders. Today Mrs Bennetts, 35, will speak from the back of a truck at a protestin Albury against spiralling fuel prices. On Sunday, she will be behind the wheel of her big Western Star rig, leading a convoy down the Hume Highway for another protest in Melbourne. "People have an image of truck drivers as big, bad and mean," she said yesterday. "But we're just families trying to survive." Mrs Bennetts and her husband have been owner-drivers for 12 years. While raising two sons and a daughter, aged between 7 and 12, she has taken the wheel as co-driver on school holidays "to give him a break". Now she spends most of her time on the "truckies' grapevine", a networkof mobile phones, UHV and CB radios reaching across the nation to 30,000 independent owner-drivers. Her targets are the Federal Government's oil-pricing policies, finance companies that are "hassling broke truck drivers into oblivion", and the major freight companies which have cut freight rates. Last year, finance company repossessions involving drivers unable to maintain monthly payments on their rigs increased by 176 per cent, according to the Transport Workers Union (TWU). Since then, times have got even tougher. The 10 per cent GST on July 1 was followed by freight companies cutting rates and, more devastatingly, by the rising price of diesel, up in two months from 78.9� a litre to $1 to $1.06 a litre. And still rising. "Times have never been so bad," Mrs Bennetts said."Owner-drivers aren't making enough to feed their families. Some are so desperate they're telling the finance companies to come and get their rigs." Mrs Bennetts is part of a steering committee of about 20 owner-driversfrom around Australia which emerged from nationwide protests in May and June. The former hairdresser played a leading role in the blockades thatclosed down the Hume Highway at Albury-Wodonga. The truckies won the support of the TWU, which represents about 10 percent of owner-drivers in Australia and which has recognised they all share a common plight. Mrs Bennetts said the protests in Albury and Melbourne would be peaceful. ***************************************************************** GANGBOX: CONSTRUCTION WORKERS NEWS SERVICE *********************************************************************** GANGBOX homepage: http://www.GeoCities.com/gangbox/ comments? email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "UNION NOW, UNION FOREVER" ****************************************** Knowledge is Power! Elimination of the exploitation of man by man http://www.egroups.com/group/pttp/ POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Change Delivery Options: http://www.egroups.com/mygroups _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
