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Thai truck drivers join oil protests

Truck drivers block a highway during a strike against high fuel prices on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. As many as 120,000 truck drivers are believed to have taken part in the protest. PHOTO: EPA

Thousands of Thai truck drivers went on strike yesterday, parking their vehicles along the country’s highways to protest high fuel prices.

“If we work we lose money, so it’s better not to work,” said Thongu Kongkhan, secretary-general of the Transportation Federation of Thailand.

Thongu claimed that altogether 120,000 trucks out of 700,000 operating nationwide had joined the strike yesterday, parking their 10-wheel and container vehicles in lines stretching up to 10km along Bang Na Trad Highway on the outskirts of Bangkok and along other major highways in Chonburi, Rayong and Nakorn Sawan provinces.

“We want the government to provide us diesel at a special price,” Thongu said. “If we don’t get the subsidy by June 17, the entire national truck fleet of 700,000 vehicles will go on strike and descend on Bangkok,” he warned.

The federation of truckers is also demanding that the government subsidize the costs of switching over to compressed natural gas (CNG) and the opening of more CNG petrol stations nationwide.

The strikers claimed to represent both large and small truck operators.

Several successful Thai politicians have made their fortunes in the country’s trucking sector, making it a powerful political lobby.

BUSES

The truckers’ strike yesterday followed a successful strike by private bus operators in Bangkok last month.

The government bowed to the bus strikers’ demands, promising to subsidize their fuel costs, although it has yet to do so.

The price of diesel, the most popular fuel in Thailand, has risen to 40 baht (US$1.20) per liter, compared with 31 baht per liter in January.

SPAIN

Meanwhile, the Spanish government announced late on Tuesday that it had reached an accord with non-striking road haulage unions aimed at easing the crisis over soaring fuel costs that has led to a crippling two-day-old stoppage by truck drivers.

Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the agreement was to be presented yesterday to the two unions which called the strike, Fenadismer and Confedetrans.

“We hope that tomorrow these two organizations will sign the accord, because it includes issues that they have raised, with the aim of putting an end to a situation that Spaniards do not deserve,” she said.

The deal, reached with unions representing 82 percent of the sector, includes 54 measures aimed at easing the pain of the high fuel costs that triggered the walkout.

But the deal it does not envisage a minimum rate of compensation called for by the strikers.

ACCIDENT

Fenadismer and Confedetrans suspended strike negotiations with the government earlier on Tuesday after a truck driver was run over and killed by a van as he manned a picket line in the southern city of Granada.

Thousands of truckers are on strike to demand government help to offset the higher fuel costs in a protest that has caused food and fuel shortages and huge tailbacks on the Spanish-French border and around major Spanish cities.
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