French drivers in new strike threat
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By Miles Brignall • Militant French haulage unions arc preparing to resume strike action. Ironically, news of the threatened action broke as haulage associations met with EC Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock's staff to discuss compensation claims.
French newspapers claim the unions are prepared to resume strike action to force their employers to keep promises made over hours and wages. The drivers are reported to be ready for a "hard and long action", possibly starting in October.
This week the Freight Transport and Road Haulage Associations travelled to Brussels to update Kinnock's team on the lack of progress towards compensation follow ing the last strike, and to discuss responses to future action. Among the solutions on the table was an Anglo-Dutch proposal for a central fund which would act as a strike tax. Each member state would be obliged to keep its roads open. If it failed it would be liable to pay a fine into a central Commission fund. This in turn would be paid out as compensation to hauliers.
Other suggestions included the creation of guaranteed open "freeways" across the EU. Police in strike-bound countries would be required to keep open at all costs.
The French representatives were criticised for "trotting out the same old legal excuses about the employees to having the right to strike".