http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/11/europe/fuel.php

Spain cracks down on striking truckers

The Associated PressPublished: June 11, 2008

MADRID: Spain got tough with striking truckers who have disrupted food and fuel supplies, deploying riot police officers Wednesday to lift blockades of a border crossing with France and a major highway outside Madrid, and making dozens of arrests.

But unions representing the strikers vowed to press on, rejecting a package of measures presented by the government to end the three-day-old nationwide protests over rising fuel prices.

One striker died Tuesday when a van drove through a picket line, and a protester died in a similar incident in Portugal, which has been hit by the same kind of strike since Monday.

One of the Spanish industries hit hardest by the strike, automobile manufacturing, warned that if the stoppage continued, the entire industry and its daily production of 13,000 vehicles would halt Thursday because parts for assembly were not reaching factories.

The strike is being waged by self-employed drivers, who represent an estimated 20 percent of the 380,000-vehicle trucking industry. They say big companies cope better with fuel-price hikes by lowering hauling rates to land more jobs.

Monday, 9 June 2008 12:54 UK

Spanish hauliers on fuel strike

The strike has caused tailbacks 10kms long around the Spanish capital
Tens of thousands of Spanish lorry drivers have begun an indefinite strike over the soaring price of diesel, which has risen by 20% this year.
After stopping work at midnight, many disrupted traffic at one of the border crossings between Spain and France.
A number of lorries crossing the picket lines had their windscreens broken, lights ripped out and tyres slashed.
The government is preparing a package to assist the sector, with emergency loans and more flexible contracts.
It would also offer cash payments to older lorry drivers who are willing to retire.
French fishermen from Mediterranean ports have, meanwhile, joined fleets from other French ports in suspending their action pending an EU summit in Brussels later this month.
Wide support
Overnight, about 200 lorry drivers parked their vehicles beside roadside toll booths in the Catalonian town of La Jonquera, close to the border with France.

There's been no hostility and it is rather good-natured
James Barber
English driver stuck in Spain

Eye-witness: 'No trucks on the road'