FRANCE: The French lorry drivers' strike appeared to be fizzling out yesterday because of widespread police intervention and division among trade unions. By 6.30 p.m., only one roadblock was left, near Lyons, compared to dozens across the country in the morning. Lara Marlowe, reports from Paris
Trade unionists said they would set up more roadblocks today, but their action may go unnoticed, as the entire French public sector goes on strike in a "national strike in defence of public service and pensions".
Today's strike and a demonstration march by up to 50,000 people through Paris are meant to warn of future unrest if deregulation in the EU and the reform of the French pension system erode working conditions, job security and retirement benefits. Air traffic controllers, railway, postal, hospital and metro workers will all stop working, and transport in France will be severely disrupted until tomorrow morning. Flights between Ireland and France have been cancelled.
The Transport Minister, Mr Gilles de Robien, said government employees "are reasonable to hold one day of demonstations to express their fears for the future". It was, he added, "something very healthy in a democracy." This contrasted with the government's suppression of the lorry drivers' strike, by threatening to withdraw the driving licences of men who refused to dismantle roadblocks.
Similar strikes have occurred on average every second year for the past decade, but the Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, made a dramatic departure from the traditional laissez-faire attitude, saying the lorry drivers "have a right to strike, but not to block other people".
In anticipation of the lorry drivers' strike, the government pre-positioned gendarmes and riot police at major highway junctions and around petrol refineries, and said it would not allow France's frontiers, commercial centres or other strategic locations to be blocked. To prevent panic buying, many petrol stations limited purchases to 20 litres for passenger cars and 50 litres for lorries.
Police broke up dozens of bottlenecks throughout the day, giving strikers an hour or two to depart. Haulage company managers said they would fire drivers who parked lorries across roads, depriving them of the instrument they used to obstruct traffic in the past.
The lorry drivers were also weakend when four small trade unions concluded an agreement with management on Sunday night for a 14 per cent pay rise over three years. The two biggest unions, the CGT and the CFDT, decided to hold out for a 13th month of salary and threatened to set up at least 80 roadblocks across the country. In many cases, planned roadblocks had to be abandoned because there were not enough strikers.
A game of flying roadblocks set in, with lorry drivers reconvening after police forced them to move. The CGT denounced what it called "the repressive attitude of the government".
Mr Ole Bockmann, the port director for Irish Ferries in Cherbourg, said his ship berthed without problems yesterday. At worst, passenger cars had to queue for an hour at "filtering roadblocks", but "all commercial vehicles risk being blocked," he said.
Mr de Robien said European enlargement was a factor behind the strike, because drivers fear competition from east European haulage companies that pay much lower wages, starting in 2004.
While 75 per cent of French people polled say they support lorry drivers, who work long hours for low wages, the majority no longer have sympathy for the public sector workers who go on strike today and who are increasingly viewed as a privileged caste.
Government employees want to maintain the right to retire after 37.5 years of employment, compared to 40 years in the private sector. The issue brought down the previous right-wing government.