Chaos as fuel protest truckers block roads in Spain
Truckers angry over soaring fuel prices blocked roads across Spain, disrupting supplies of food, petrol, car parts and other goods.
One protester was killed when he was run over by a van trying to drive through a picket line in a southern city.
The strike, which began on Monday, is the most serious labour unrest facing Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero since he came to power in March 2004.
It threatens further damage to an economy that is already slowing down due to a collapse in Spain’s once-booming building sector.
Three car plants – one each from Nissan, Mercedes Benz and Seat – said they were suspending operations for lack of spare parts. And some petrol stations in Madrid and the north-eastern Catalonia region have already run out of fuel.
Yesterday sellers warned of shortages of fruit, vegetables and meat this week at Madrid’s sprawling wholesale market, Mercamadrid, if the strike continued.
Mercamadrid took in 10 truckloads of fish yesterday – compared with 90 on a normal day, said Manuel Pablos, president of an association of fish merchants. Fishermen also have been on strike since May 30 to protest rising fuel costs.
The combination of the two strikes “is making these days very grim”, he said.
Truckers say their diesel costs have risen 36% in one year.
The stoppage had its first fatality yesterday when a protester was struck by a van at a picket outside the wholesale market in Granada, the Interior Ministry said.
“We regret the death of this person and hope it makes everyone realise that no dispute is worth the death of anyone,” Juan Jose Lopez Garzon, Interior Ministry delegate for the southern region of Andalucia, told Spanish National Radio.
The ministry said the van driver, who has been detained, accelerated and hit the man as protesters began to throw stones after he tried to drive past the picket.
A second day of talks between the government and truckers’ representatives was suspended after the death was reported.
Those on strike are mainly self-employed truckers who make up a minority of the industry. They are demanding minimum, guaranteed haulage rates to offset rising fuel prices and to enable them to compete with large trucking companies. The government has said that setting guaranteed rates would violate the principle of free-market competition.
The truckers also complain that while fishermen benefit from heavily-discounted diesel, truckers have no such generous perk.
“Why not us? What do we run on, water?” asked trucker Antonio Campoy as he stood beside a long line of trucks parked on a major highway leading into Madrid.
Mr Campoy said with fuel prices so high and so many other costs to cover, it was virtually impossible for independent truckers to make a profit.
“Every wheel on this truck costs at least €400, and it has 18 of them,” he said. “All we are asking for is a little consideration.”
Traffic on roads outside Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Alicante and other cities was backed up behind slow-moving trucks, the Interior Ministry’s traffic division said. Trucks also blocked the Junquera border crossing with France for a second day, allowing only cars through.
On the streets of Madrid, people raided supermarkets in bouts of panic buying.
Meanwhile, a similar truckers’ protest was taking place in Hong Kong, with drivers in a go-slow strike to disrupt traffic and protest rising fuel costs.
About 300 people marched to Hong Kong’s government headquarters and demanded that fuel taxes be slashed, according to government-run broadcaster RTHK.
Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery was at 131.80 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday.
