[Ache]

http://voanews.com/english/2008-06-09-voa29.cfm

Truck drivers in Spain, France and Portugal are stepping up protests over rising fuel prices, as demonstrations spread Monday across Europe.

Traffic backups were reported in Madrid and Barcelona, as truckers pushed their demands for gas price relief and other drivers topped off fuel tanks in anticipation of gasoline shortages.

Protest actions also snarled traffic at main border crossings between Spain and France. French television showed trucks backed up several kilometers near the southern French city of Bordeaux, after Spanish protesters at the nearby border smashed windshields on trucks attempting to enter Spain.

Separately, Reuters news agency says Portuguese truckers threatened to block roadways to Algarve, a popular tourist region, to prevent goods from reaching the area.

Meanwhile, French fishermen from Mediterranean ports today suspended their three-week fuel price protests.

The French news agency AFP says the protests, which blocked key ports and fuel terminals, were suspended ahead of a June 23-24 meeting of European fisheries ministers, who are set to discuss fuel proposals.

French fishing fleets at the Atlantic ports of Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne-Ser-Mer called off their protests last week, to await the outcome of the ministerial talks.

[Fishman]

Gosh, and here I thought Europe was going to cruise through this peak oil thing with hardly a bump, what with their taxes and egalitarian culture.

[cube]

Is the USA next?

LOL
no.
There's an over-supply of truck drivers.
Not to sound mean but if 5% of truck drivers went out of business / lost their jobs there would still be plenty enough of truck drivers left to deliver ALL the necessary goods to keep the economy functioning.
The best thing to do is step back and do nothing and let the free market does what it does best.

[Starvid]

This is what you have the Guardia Civil for. Asskicking time!

I'm not sure, but I think the Swedish government can declare a trucker strike illegal if they feel like it. At least they can do it for officers, policemen, doctors and nurses. If you then refuse to go back to work you will be prosecuted.

[smallpoxgirl]

I think there's two basic reasons they'd rather have low fuel prices. 1: If they charge more, there's going to be less work for them and some will be laid off. 2: The drivers don't directly set their own fees, and fuel surcharges seem to be lagging quite a bit behind the spike in price. They're getting fuel surcharges based on where prices were 6 months ago, not where they are now.

[jbrovont]

This in of itself will cause shortages as the "top off the tank" scenario drags on a stressed system. Theoretically prices should actually increase from this action, and increase present demand.

I'd look to this as a model to see how governments are going to react when people test their boogy men. Keep prices high and kill demand? If they know peak oil is the real problem maybe we'll see some indication here. On the otherhand, if they just cut taxes, or provide some relief, that's a good indicator that they don't have a clue since that will in effect stimulate growth when we really need reduction.

Don't sweat it - we already failed that test in the US. People seem to be spending those $600 "stimulus" checks like it's their job.

[paimei01]

I live in Madrid, I have nothing to do with the strike, but in my work there is a lot of concern that the fuel is going to run out by the weekend, so all of them are filling their car's tank, and also they are talking about buying a lot of food before the stores run out of food. People are really concerned - some of them are not using the car, just for precaution and taking the bus. In work, all deliveries are being affected, nothing is normal, this is really affecting all of us, we want solutions fast!
Ariadna, Madrid, Spain

There are no fast solutions, make friends with your neighbors, ignore all the structure of society, and start farming every bit of land in that city. Or go and do the same somewhere outside the city. And try to do it in a sustainable way

But this will not happen, there are more chances of the world destroying itself by mistake with nuclear weapons than people getting smart and doing this.

[Ming]

In the western european countries, the socialist states take so much from the working economy (from the salaries, from the companies, from every thing that is produced, sold, bought) that every private business (especially the smaller ones, but not only) tends to always be on the brink of bankruptcy…
Those protests are performed by strangled small business (both the owners and the workers).

Also, people get used to assume that the governments must solve every problem (even if it is a geologic inevitability, but anyway very few people know about Peak Oil)…
The politicians tend to defend just that kind of view, because it increases their own standing.
And of course, if more than half of everything that is produced is appropriated by the state, one easily gets to believe that state must be rich enough to solve this kind of problem…

[whereagles]

I was at a fishing town in Portugal today. Asked for fish at a restaurant but there was NONE. Marketplaces are running short on fresh goods and some gasoline stations are out of fuel, with tanker trucks caught on road blocks.

Also, two truckers died today on road blocks.

[sar]

[align=justify]Hi everyone, first post, long time reader.

The situation here in Portugal is getting pretty bad. The road blocks that the truckers and truck companys have made in protest of high fuel prices are becoming a serious issue.
There are shortages of goods in the supermarkets, and there´s a shortage of fuel in many fuel stations all around the country, last night the governement set up a convoy of 40 fuel trucks escorted by police forces to refuel the stations. There are fuel shortages in the airport and flights have been canceled. Firefighters and ambulances are complaining for lack of fuel.
People are scared and are beggining to hoard fuel and demand that the governement uses force to stop the road blocks.

I wonder what will be like in 2012 (or early?) when real declines in world oil production kick in, when people realize that the governement can´t do nothing to ease the cost of life as we know it, and life becomes unbearable. Chaos, i fear!

Sorry for my english. Best regards.
1 Abraco Whereagles.

[align=justify][/align][/align]

[phaeryen]

Hello Sar and welcome to the forum.

Another concerned individual from your country recently joined the forum. You can find his thread on the Europe sub-forum, titled simply "Portugal". Maybe you might want to join in on that discussion? It is sad to hear that you are having it so bad over there. I have been intrigued by whats going over there in the iberian peninsula for quite some time. Seems like the developing financial+oil crisis caught you folks at a very inconvenient time.

best of luck to you and hope to have you as a contributor of a portugese perspective in the times to come.


p.s. on a lighter note, in two hours local time portugal will gear up against czech in the european football championship and I will attend to a TV somewhere to see it. portugal has been a favourite footie team of mine for a while, seeing as how my country never manages to get a team into any of the final cups in that sport.

[sar]

p.s. on a lighter note, in two hours local time portugal will gear up against czech in the european football championship and I will attend to a TV somewhere to see it. portugal has been a favourite footie team of mine for a while, seeing as how my country never manages to get a team into any of the final cups in that sport.

Thanks phaeryen.

Hehehe, when the game begins the crisis will stop for about two hours, and i guess it would be a good time to refuel the fuelstations and replace the stocks in supermarkets as the truckdrivers go to the nearest television set to watch the game .
If we win, i wonder if we will see the usual motorcades going in loops and hitting the horns, burning huge amounts of fuel

Go CR7

[Eli]

Sar that is great english no reason to be ashamed.

Welcome to the forum glad to have your perspective.

I love this site for its global reach.

[Pfish]

Sar, welcome and thanks for your comments. My fear is that the governments are going to use brute force to "unblock" these truckers. Back in the US when we had the Watts riots in downtown LA, after several days of rioting, the police just started shooting people. That simple. The riots died down very quickly.

[zoidberg]

I dont understand the truckers actions. Are they part of some government union? It sounds like they're private business people. Why do they feel the government owes them money for high fuel charges? Is it just a European thing? I understand its brutal with the fuel increases but why do they feel punishing the general public is the proper course of action? There has to be more to the story. Is there some sort of attempt by the large trucking companies to price their competition out of business?

[desultorypawn]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/06 ... s.fuel.ap/

What's a government to do!

[kublikhan]

I dont understand the truckers actions. Are they part of some government union? It sounds like they're private business people. Why do they feel the government owes them money for high fuel charges? Is it just a European thing? I understand its brutal with the fuel increases but why do they feel punishing the general public is the proper course of action? There has to be more to the story. Is there some sort of attempt by the large trucking companies to price their competition out of business?

The ones striking are independent truckers. They are asking for a minimum haulage rate("IE, minimum wage"). The big trucking companies can ship more cheaply than a small independent trucker can. Thus they can afford to stay in business at low haulage rates and high fuel rates while independent truckers can't. To me, it seems similar to a local record store owner getting pushed out of business by a tower records that opened across the street.

[zoidberg]

I dont understand the truckers actions. Are they part of some government union? It sounds like they're private business people. Why do they feel the government owes them money for high fuel charges? Is it just a European thing? I understand its brutal with the fuel increases but why do they feel punishing the general public is the proper course of action? There has to be more to the story. Is there some sort of attempt by the large trucking companies to price their competition out of business?

The ones striking are independent truckers. They are asking for a minimum haulage rate("IE, minimum wage"). The big trucking companies can ship more cheaply than a small independent trucker can. Thus they can afford to stay in business at low haulage rates and high fuel rates while independent truckers can't. To me, it seems similar to a local record store owner getting pushed out of business by a tower records that opened across the street.

Thanks for the analogy. It sounds like a case of them trying to say that two wrongs make a right. At least its not a matter of demanding taxpayer money. Sympathy level:low but not negligible.

[Novus]

Last time a strike like this happened in America Reagan threatened to draft the striking workers into the army. That crushed the Unions to a point that they never recovered from. There is a play book to stop this and it is rather ugly. The Unions would be wise to bargain rather than force the government's hand.

[bodigami]

Sar, welcome and thanks for your comments. My fear is that the governments are going to use brute force to "unblock" these truckers. Back in the US when we had the Watts riots in downtown LA, after several days of rioting, the police just started shooting people. That simple. The riots died down very quickly.

There will be growing discontent with those that paralyze the economy on essentials (water, food) and "essentials" (energy: electricity and fuel) due to high fuel prices...

There may be some with weapons that threathen the strikers to continue working. If this protests happened in Costa Rica I don't know what to do... maybe shout: "lemmings, Peak Oil is here to stay!" ...but I don't want to get shot... lol, maybe I will do it anyway because here we're [s]peaceful[/s] lazy to be violent!