June 30, 2008
PARIS (AP) – Truck drivers protesting soaring fuel prices have slowed highway traffic outside Paris and other French cities. Lorry drivers have been staging protests against the high cost of fuel, causing hundreds of kilometres of traffic jams. It is the latest in a number of similar actions organised by trade unions in a bid to persuade the government to help road hauliers pay for petrol by cutting taxes.
So-called “snail operations” were staged nationwide, bringing traffic to a standstill outside France’s major cities.
Labor union officials say 40 protests nationwide are designed to win reductions in gasoline taxes and other government measures to offset rising world fuel prices. France’s traffic information center says truckers who were driving at a snail’s pace brought highway traffic to a near-standstill on highways around the French capital.
Protesters also blockaded highways in the southeastern Rhone-Alpes region and in other parts of eastern France. The protests Monday were a continuation of weeks of protests over high fuel prices.
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