French truckers’ stir skids amid union split

Many blockades out of the 150 in place at the beginning of the day were lifted across the country, notably at the freight ferry terminal at Calais and around the major western port of Le Havre, in the teeth of opposition from all the other trade unions – the pro-Communist CGT, the independent Force Ouvriere, the minority Christian union, CFTC and the autonomous drivers’ union, FNCR.

In the end, the CFDT went ahead and signed the protocol alone with representatives of two employers’ organisations and a small union representing administrative personnel.

In eastern France, authorities lifted petrol rationing around Lyon, imposed after truckers blockaded fuel depots.

But in the South around the Mediterranean Port of Marseille, the strike hardened and not one road block was lifted in the Bouches-du-Rhone department. Blockades of two fuel depots near Toulouse, in the southwest, continued. Authorities in Marseille said that strikers manning road blocks were no longer allowing perishable goods for hospitals and school canteens to pass.

Before the signing, CFDT negotiator Joel Le Coq said: “I think that a certain number of our members will leave the roadblocks as of now, but we will only call for the blockades to be lifted once we have seen what specific situations are.”

The CFDT claims to represent some 80 per cent of the militants who have been manning blockades nationwide since last Sunday night. It was not clear whether other unions could continue the action without CFDT support.

The effects of the strike had been increasingly felt across France, with 40 per cent of filling stations nationwide out of petrol as a result of the drivers’ blockades around fuel depots, ports and oil refineries. The CFDT said 61.73 per cent of members consulted on blockades nationwide agreed that the Union should sign the accord.