Canada: Truckers Protest over fuel prices continues into third day

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread

Feb 23, 15:09 est

Truckers vow to stay the course

By Louise Surette Staff reporter thestar.com

In the third day of strikes, more than a thousand independent truckers gathered for a rally in Pickering this afternoon, unanimously vowing to stay off the job until their demands are met.

The truckers want retroactive compensation from the companies that hire them to offset the loss in wages because of rising diesel prices.

While they vow to keep public inconvenience to a minimum and have disassociated themselves from a ''rogue'' group of truckers who tied up traffic on some GTA roads during Monday's rush hour, commuters this afternoon can expected delays on major highways, especially the 401, as truckers slow down in protest.

Yesterday, angry truckers slowed traffic on the 401 to a crawl, drawing anger from motorists trying to get home.

The truckers - there are 20,000 in Ontario - say the price of diesel has risen so quickly they can't afford to run their rigs. Diesel has risen from 35 cents a litre in January, 1999, to the current price of 69 cents.

The truckers are also asking that their mileage rates improve by at least 25 per cent. They are paid $1 per mile, a figure that hasn't changed in close to 20 years, they say.

At the rally, held at the Metro East Trade Centre, truckers unanimously sported the creation of a national independent truckers association.

On the East Coast, a protest at the Nova Scotia-New Brunswick border that shut down truck traffic to and from Atlantic Canada for the last two days has ended. But another one began near the New Brunswick-U.S border today when 40 trucks stopped traffic near Woodstock, N.B.

In Newfoundland, truckers continued to pull their rigs off the road today in Foxtrap and Grand Falls.

http://www.thestar.com/thestar/editorial/updates/gta/200002240_28041.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 24, 2000


Moderation questions? read the FAQ