By Alex Lefebvre 27 November 2002
Truck drivers in France staged a nationwide strike November 24 and 25, erecting roadblocks on highways and intersections in various parts of the country. Union demands were for a pay increase, the standardization of the Christmas bonus, improved health insurance, a shortening of the workweek and bonuses for work experience.
French truckers' salaries are already drifting towards the minimum wage, and they fear that the admission of former Warsaw Pact countries into the European Union will allow trucking companies to dismiss them in favor of cheaper labor from the East.
The truckers' industrial action is the first in a series of strikes and demonstrations planned for the coming weeks, protesting austerity measures and the attack on public services and living standards spearheaded by the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. A mass demonstration in Paris on Tuesday included rail workers, postal workers, Air France personnel, France Télécom workers and Paris transit workers.
Strikes are already occurring in the public television sector, amongst drivers license examiners, and at France Inter airline. Farmers recently blockaded supermarkets to protest low prices for producers and price gouging of consumers by supermarket chains. A mass demonstration of public education workers is planned for December 8.
There is broad popular support for the truck drivers. According to a poll published in the Journal du Dimanche, 75 percent of the population thinks that truckers are "on the whole correct" in their decision to strike. Union officials said that workers were enthusiastic about launching the strike. There were reports of roadblocks spontaneously set up by workers Sunday night and of truckers using their own cars to erect roadblocks to evade union or company rules regarding the use of trucks.
Newspapers spoke of a nightmare scenario for the government: working class action shutting down major commercial and strategic transportation lines and harming a shaky economy's Christmas season, while a large-scale demonstration brewed in Paris. Some journalists and politicians compared the emerging situation to November-December 1995, when the right-wing government of Alain Juppé, advancing a program of privatization and budget cuts similar to that of Raffarin, fell apart in the face of a massive strike wave in the public sector....
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/nov2002/fran-n27.shtml> -- Yoshie
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