Lorry-drivers call for blockade over oil price hikes

PARIS, Sept 5 (AFP) – An organisation representing French lorry-drivers called for a blockade of oil refineries and border-posts Monday to demand government help to counter the steep rise in petrol prices.

“UNOSTRA has issued a general appeal for an open-ended blockade of strategic sites in France — oil depots or distribution points or frontiers. The choice is up to local leaders,” said the organisation’s president Catherine Pons.

UNOSTRA says it has some 4,500 members, mainly small independent truck operators. There are two other larger business federations.

The action is to “draw the government attention more strongly to the economic catastrophe facing our industry thanks mainly to the sky-rocketing cost of oil,” Pons said.

The organisation is demanding a cut in the tax on petrol for haulage firms, as well as government investment in alternative fuels, she said.

Early Monday lorries blocked access to oil depots in the eastern cities of Mulhouse and Dijon, but there was no other disruption.

Subject: French news