BY MARCELLA FITZGERALD AND SHELLIA KENNEDY
CALAIS, France - Higher wages, better working conditions, union rights, and genuine negotiations with the employers are among the demands listed on the leaflets striking truck drivers are giving out in this port city. The truckers have been appealing to their fellow drivers from Europe and elsewhere, with flyers in French and English, asking them to understand their demands and refuse to go to France.

A 12-day truckers strike in November 1996 tied up France, disrupted shipping throughout much of Europe, and won some important gains. This included a lower retirement age and recognition of loading and unloading as paid work time. The drivers are now blockading some of the main highways again, demanding a raise in their near-minimum wages and that the bosses and government live up to bonus and pension promises from last year.

"This year we told all the other drivers in advance so they had time to leave, because some people got stuck on the roads last year," Jean Michel Delary said. "Many of the English drivers understand and are in solidarity with us." Delary was one of several members of the French Confederation of Democratic Labor (CFDT) on the barricade here who explained to these reporters the reasons for the work stoppage and the effects it is having on the bosses. "As you can see, nothing is moving," he noted.

Among the strikers are also members of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and Workers Force (FO), as well as many drivers who do not belong to a union.

A last minute agreement reached on November 2 between officials of several truckers unions and one of the bosses federations was rejected by the rank and file, who began the strike the same day. The main demand by strikers is for guaranteed monthly and hourly wage rates.

Demand for higher wages
Frederic Thienpont explained, "What we want is 10,000ff [$1,730] for 200 hours work a month, or 48,15ff [$8.32] per working hour. At the moment, we get 8,212ff [$1,421] for 200 hours and that is before paying taxes, which amount to 23 percent of the wage. You can work 230 hours and be paid for 200 hours, because we are not paid for waiting time. Sometimes you can wait for 12 to 14 hours without being paid for it." He added, "In the last strike, we won the right to retire at 55 on 75 percent of the gross wage, but it's difficult to live on that."

Under the November 2 proposal, wages for one category of long-haul drivers would rise to 10,000ff a month by July 1, 2000. But this would only affect between 7,000 and 10,000 of the 220,000 salaried truckers. Others would be given more limited wage increases. The main trucking bosses association, the Union of Transport Federations (UFT), which represents 80 percent of the employers, left the negotiating table before the agreement was reached.

When asked how long the fight would continue Delary said, "That depends on the bosses."

As of the third day of the strike, the truckers had put up some 150 barricades on major highways and around important economic targets throughout France. By contrast, last year's strike began with only 25 barricades, though the number grew to 250 by the end. Two days into this strike, 12 of Francés 13 gas refineries were blockaded and gas was already being rationed in some regions. Some automobile plants had partially shut down. On highway blockades, strikers were stopping trucks but letting cars through.

Pressure on Jospin government
When asked how this strike compared with last year's, Mickael Verlet explained that it was stronger this time because last year they started with fewer barricades. Delary added that there had been a change of government. Socialist Party prime minister Lionel Jospin would have more sympathy with the workers, he said.

Even before the blockades went up, the British and Spanish governments and the European Commission began to pressure Paris to guarantee "safe corridors" for the transport of goods from other European countries in the case of a truckers strike. Jospin also came under fire from conservative French president Jacques Chirac, whose office issued an official statement saying it was up to the government "to take the necessary measures to assure the free movement of traffic."

Since the beginning of the dispute, the police have pulled down a few barricades at sites bordering Germany and Spain. On November 4 riot police broke up the barricades set up by strikers picketing the Channel Tunnel to Britain. Strikers said they didn't feel overly concerned about this, though, that Jospin was just trying to set the other governments at ease. Trucks were entering France through the tunnel, but this is a costly crossing for the bosses, they said.

The government has hesitated to interfere more broadly with the striker's actions, fearing to affront the truckers' determination and public support for the strike. "Strictly speaking, any barricade is illegal," Gilles Bouilhaguet, prefect for Atlantic Pyrenees department, told the national daily newspaper Le Figaro. But he added, "Maintaining order is not an exact science. Under the pretext of reestablishing order, you obviously have to avoid provoking chaos."

Minister of Transportation Jean-Claude Gayssot, of the Communist Party, was trying to convince the UFT bosses federation to resume negotiations with the unions, while at the same time warning the strikers, "When conflict lasts, you're never sure it will finish in the best way."

There is widespread support for the truckers' fight among other working people. Several workers interviewed at the GEC- Alsthom plant in Saint Ouen, near Paris, all expressed their backing for the strike. "They're determined those guys. I hope they win something," said Nantharath Bounnong, 37.

"They're just defending their livelihood," explained Raymond Bourgeois, 28. "When you see the hours they put in and the wages they get you understand them. What they have going for them is that they have the means to make an impact."

Shellia Kennedy is a member of the Rail, Maritime and Transportation Union in London. Derek Jeffers, a member or of the General Confederation of Labor union at GEC-Alsthom in Saint Ouen, contributed to this article.  
 
 
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