The 500,000 employees of the goods transport and logistics sector in France have called strike action from Sunday 13th of December at 21h30. No time limit has been announced on the proposed strikes. The strike will be concentrated on goods distribution warehouses with the multiple retail platforms being particularly targeted. The unions hope to avoid creating too much negative public opinion by only targeting industrial warehouses and not directly disrupting consumer traffic. No decision has been taken concerning blocking of petrol depots.

Latest negotiations (Thursday morning 10/12) between the unions and the government failed to come to any agreement. The General Secretary for transport Dominique Bussereau proposed a reduction in carbon tax of €100M for the transport sector. Total carbon tax for the sector is estimated at €400M.  The unions stated that the government wasted their time in calling a meeting to hear the gesture and walked out of the talks.  This gesture was also criticised by the greens as being anti-ecological and miss-timed in the midst of the Copenhagen conference. 

The five unions involved in the negotiations condemn the salary freeze in the transport sector which has lasted for two years and demand a rise in salaries of 4% and a rise in travel expenses. An inter union meeting will take place on Thursday afternoon the 10th of December to decide if they will return to the negotiating table. They maintain their call for strike action commencing Sunday evening the 13th of December.

For further information contact Bord Bia Paris at +33 1 42662293