Giant traffic jams and fears of empty gas stations afflicted France Monday, as striking truckers blocked gasoline depots and clogged highways and border routes to Spain.
Negotiations over pay and working conditions broke down over the weekend, prompting trucking unions to repeat the protests that crippled French commerce for 12 days a year ago. No talks were scheduled Monday.Truckers' roadblocks choked highways around all major French cities and roads leading to the Spanish border, while the unions organized barricades around provincial gas stations, regional fuel storage depots and oil refineries.
Traffic was backed up for at least four miles east of Paris, and in some regions, 80 percent of gas stations had run dry.
The national road information center cited traffic problems in every French region, including roads to loading points for the English Channel ferries in Normandy and many important bridges.
Union leaders estimated they had established up to 135 barricades by early Monday. The strike officially began late Sunday. Workers began barricading fuel depots Saturday after the biggest syndicate of truck company owners pulled out of the talks.
Most of the roadblocks were designed to slowly filter private motorists through while all commercial traffic is halted.
Police were forced to intervene at least twice during the night to keep open the highway crossings into Spain, but local unions vowed to halt all cross-border commercial traffic.
Spanish Development Minister Rafael Arias Salgada called on the French government to ensure Spanish truckers' freedom of movement.
The work stoppage could exacerbate France's high unemployment rate and poses a major challenge to Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who has not taken a side in the dispute.