British truck drivers run Spanish gauntlet
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• British truck drivers have been beaten up, had their windscreens smashed, their tyres slashed and spiked, their trailers attacked and their loads destroyed in the Valencia retion of Spain in the past three weeks.
A strike at Ford's Valencia plant three to four weeks ago prompted a wider local strike by Spanish drivers, who were attempting to restrict all truck movements in and out of the Valencia region, half way down Spain's Mediterranean coast. They used makeshift road blocks and, according to Wyvern International Transport of Southampton, some confrontations turned particularly violent. Wyvern driver Rick
Greenwood was dragged from his cab and severely attacked by a gang of angry Spanish drivers. He sustained bad bruising and a cut over his eye, before some nearby Spanish policemen moved in to help, said a company spokesman.
More than 200 abandoned trailers surrounded the Ford plant at the end of the dispute last week, although things in the region are now returning to normal. The Road Haulage Association made strong representations to the Spanish authorities through the local British consul and French, German and Belgian vehicles were also involved in the attacks.
According to Nick Barnes at the RHA, "quite a number of British drivers had to have a police escort through the Valencia area". A vehicle belonging to Wishart International of Kirkcaldy had its tyres slashed and needed a police escort out of the trouble zone. Offshore Transport Services of Scunthorpe had a brick thrown through the windscreen of one of its trucks on the motorway near Valencia.
Offshore boss Roy Harber says: "The driver drove on to the customs area near the border and got attacked again. A gang there ripped the airlines out and broke his air taps. It cost us £500 to repair the vehicle." Offshore is still trying to get recompense according to Roy Harber.