All road transport unions demanded a strike Monday, June 27, to demand wage increases. This Monday morning, several industrial areas in France were closed for the distribution of leaflets and filtering barriers were set up.
“We were vital to the continuity in the life of the nation during Covid, and we realize that all of the employees have been forgotten”, says Patrice Clos (general secretary, transport branch, FO) with France-Bleu.
Patrick Blaise, FGTE Route CFDT’s first trade union in the field, warns that “if this day of action does not suffice, we will get into to the hard in October”.
He assures that “all regions will be affected” and that about twenty large sites will be affected by filterdams at dawn by more then 6,000 union members who should tow. Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux and Toulouse should all be affected.
An AFP journalist reported that fifty people wearing orange CFDT vests blocked the exit to the Melantois area near Lille.
Leaflets were handed to motorists by the group, criticizing the “ostrich” policy on wages for “transport and government bosses”, despite “successive rises due to galloping, exponential inflation, a severe shortage in wage earners [ …]] and purchasing power that melts as snow in the sunlight”.
“Most of these minimuma are below the Smic,” stated Fabien Michaud (CGT-Transports delegate). He added that employers are not likely to increase wages because they will pay wages closer to the Smic and have more exemptions.
Unions demand that wage negotiations be immediately reopened after the October talks which resulted in a 6% increase on the grids.
All road transport workers, including truck drivers and bus drivers, as well as ambulance attendants and cash transporters are called into action by an inter-union that includes the CGT, CFDT FO, FO, CFTC, CFE-CGC.
