Lorry drivers begin `hard, long' strike

French truckers last night began a nationwide strike that threatens to paralyse France and cripple Europe's road transport system. Four trade unions had given a month's advance notice that their action would be "hard and long". The strike became inevitable when the main haulage management group, the UFT, and a majority of truckers rejected a draft agreement.

Mr Roger Poletti, leader of the FO-Transports union, one of two main truckers' groups leading the strike, told The Irish Times that France's 340,000 truckers "will decide themselves, on the spot", which roads and installations to block. Asked whether the port at Roscoff, the main arrival point for ferry traffic from Ireland, would be cut off, he said: "There's a risk".

As they gathered to blockade a national highway yesterday, truckers in Tours said they would hold out until Christmas if necessary. Their caravans are equipped with mobile phones, television sets, gas heaters and food. Similar preparations were made in La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Rouen, Caen, Lille, Lyons, Beziers and the Bouches-duRhone region.

The truckers learned from last year's bitter, 12-day strike. "Fuel is the vital nerve," a trade union official explained. "By blocking the depots and preventing supplies arriving from abroad, after one week all vehicles stop moving. You don't even have to block the roads. We discovered how well this worked last year."

Petrol stations reported a fivefold increase in sales over the weekend, as motorists filled car tanks and jerry-cans. In Brittany stations began running out of fuel on Saturday afternoon. The truckers' first targets will be France's international frontiers, fuel depots and major distribution points such as the Garonor freight centre near Roissy airport.

Mr Daniel Hodges, spokesman for the British Road Haulage Association, said several hundred British truckers were caught in France because of a weekend ban on lorry traffic.

He predicted shortages of vegetables, cheese, wine and meat in Britain if the strike lasted more than a few days.

The French truckers are angry that employers have not honoured the accord which ended the November 1996 strike. Their main demand now is that they be paid 10,000 francs (£1,176) a month for a maximum of 200 hours' work. According to the Ministry of Transport, the average trucker's salary last year was 7,735 francs (£910) per month for 245 hours, one of the worst rates in Europe.

The truckers' strike ends the six-month charmed existence of the government of the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin. The Communist Transport Minister, Mr Jean-Claude Gayssot, did not intervene until Friday night, when he pleaded with business management and unions to "act responsibly" and promised the govern ment would propose legislation to improve truckers' working conditions. Mr Gayssot blamed the previous centre-right government for failure to enforce last year's accord.