BELGIUM AND FRANCE: STRIKING TRUCK DRIVERS VOTE TO KEEP UP THEIR 11-DAY BLOCKADE BUT ALLOW 200 BRITISH TRUCK DRIVERS TO LEAVE CALAIS

Record ID: 328578

  • Title: BELGIUM AND FRANCE: STRIKING TRUCK DRIVERS VOTE TO KEEP UP THEIR 11-DAY BLOCKADE BUT ALLOW 200 BRITISH TRUCK DRIVERS TO LEAVE CALAIS
  • Date: 28th November 1996
  • Summary: ZEEBRUGGE, BELGIUM/ STRASBOURG AND CALAIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 28, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) ZEEBRUGGE, BELGIUM 1. GV VARIOUS OF TRUCKS LINED UP/ FERRY IN BACKGROUND 0.05 2. GV WIDE OF PORT AREA 0.09 3. GV TRUCKS DRIVING ALONG ROAD 0.19 4. GV TRUCKS IN LINE MOVING OFF TOWADS RAMP 0.28 5. SLV TRUCKS DRIVING ONTO FERRY 0.33 6. SV PAN FROM FERRY TO TRUCKS IN LINE WAITING TO GET ONTO FERRY 0.56 STRASBOURG, FRANCE 7. GV CUSTOMS AREA/ FRENCH AND GERMAN FLAGS 1.30 8. SV TRUCKS BLOCKADING ROAD 1.33 9. LV DRIVERS WARMING THEMSELVES UP BY THE FIRE 1.44 10.SCU MARC NATAF, FRENCH TRUCK DRIVER, SAYING TECHNICALLY IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MAKE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN A FRENCH AND A FOREIGN TRUCK. IF WE OPENED THE BORDERS FRENCH DRIVERS WOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SITUATION AND GET THROUGH. A DRIVER IS A DRIVER - HE WANTS TO WORK, HE WANTS TO DRIVE. (FRENCH) 2.06 11.SV DRIVER COLLECTING MONEY FROM CARS PASING BY 2.18 12.GV'S OF TRUCKS IN LINE 2.32 CALAIS, FRANCE 13. SV FENCES BEING REMOVED (AUDIO OF TRUCKS SOUNDING HORNS) (2 SHOTS) 2.42 14. SV TRUCK MOVING OFF 2.56 15. SV TRUCK MOVING, FLASHING ITS LIGHTS/ BRITISH TRUCK DRIVER GIVING THUMBS UP SIGN/ SAYING GOODBYE FRANCE AND THAT IT IS GREAT TO LEAVE (ENGLISH) 3.20 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 13th December 1996 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ZEEBRUGGE, BELGIUM/ CALAIS AND STRASBOURG, FRANCE
  • City:
  • Country: EUROPE Belgium France
  • Reuters ID: LVAD0X66HNSS8A4474RLRHZWHSXY
  • Story Text: INTRO: - Striking truck drivers have voted to keep up their 11-day stranglehold on the French economy, but have agreed to lift their blockade of the Channel port of Calais temporarily to let 200 stranded truck drivers embark for Britain.

    French truckers on Thursday (Novemner 28) maintained almost 250 barricades on main roads but promised to allow some 200 foreign trucks, mainly British to board ferries for Dover.

    During the strike, many foreign truck drivers have taken the ferry accross to Britain from the Flemish port of Zeebruggen in order to avoid the French truckers' blockade of the port in Calais.

    The Zeebrugge-Dover crossing takes three times as long, adding to the tailbacks on the Belgian side.

    At Zeebrugge a spokesman for the port gendarmerie said queues of more than 1,000 trucks that built up on Wednesday had if anything got longer, with drivers having to wait up to 20 hours to get aboard sailings to Dover.

    Tailbacks stretched back eight kilometres (five miles) on access roads, while there was a five kilometre (three mile) queue in the port.

    In France, truck drivers all over the country, huddled around fires, have vowed to maintain their blockade despite a government appeal to return to work.

    In freezing temperatures, drivers have been blocking highways, borders and fuel depots for more than a week.

    In Strasbourg, near the German border, French truck driver Marc Nataf said that if they lifted the border blockade, French drivers would take advantage of this and get through.

    "A driver is a driver - he wants to work, he wants to drive," he said.

    There was good news for some of the British truck drivers stuck in Calais.

    The striking French truckers agreed to lift their blockade of the port temporarily to let 200 stranded truck drivers embark for Britain.

    Flashing their trucks' lights and sounding the horns, the lucky British truck drivers started their journey home.


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