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Holdout French truckers group calls to lift barricades

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	A truck loaded with petrol is escorted by two gendarmes as he leaves Total's oil refinery in Ch‰teauneuf-les-Martigues, southern France, to deliver petrol to a gas station. A leading truckers' union called on Friday to lift blockades that have strangled the flow of gasoline in France for five days, causing havoc for motorists and even some air travelers. (AP/Photo Claude Paris)

September 10, 2000 

PARIS (AP) - A French truckers union leading the remaining protests against high fuel costs called on Saturday for an end to a six-day blockade of oil refineries but faced the problem of convincing protesters nationwide to lift barricades that have strangled France's fuel supplies.

The decision of the UNOSTRA group, France's second-largest truckers' union, came after the National Federation of Road Transport said late Friday it had accepted a deal by the French government and would lift its barricades. The FNTR is France's largest truckers union.

"The administration of UNOSTRA, together with myself, decided to lift our blockades," union president Daniel Chevalier said on Saturday. He said that regional union leaders would immediately begin trying to disperse rank and file members stationed at blockades around the country.

Despite calls from headquarters, the calls to lift barricades by the leading two unions was not likely to put an immediate end to the tense situation, with some 85 oil refineries and fuel depots still blocked as of Saturday morning, according to the National Center of Road Information. On Friday, there were 160 fuel distribution centers blocked.

Since Monday, the protests by France's three main trucking groups have drawn international attention to the difficulties they face as world fuel prices soar. They say France's gasoline taxes - the second-highest in the 15-member European Union - aggravate the problem.

On Wednesday, the leftist government had offered to give truckers a 35-centime (5-cent) reimbursement per liter of fuel this year, and a 25-centime (3.5-cent) refund per liter on gasoline taxes next year. One of three protesting unions accepted on the spot.

After an overnight meeting with Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, the FNTR accepted the deal.

Many French motorists have sympathized with the plight of those whose livelihood depends on gasoline. One liter of diesel fuel in France costs 5.45 francs per liter (dlrs 2.84 per gallon), nearly twice the price of such fuel in the United States. Fuel prices here have jumped about 40 percent in the past year.