transport

The situation of the Spanish working class at the turn of 1950 was a desperate one. Franco's regime had ruled over the country for the last eleven years, and severe conditions fuelled by austerity measures imposed on workers after the end of the Civil War were becoming rapidly worse.

The strike by the General Confederation of Italian workers (CGIL) shut down postal services nationwide, transport services and airports in several cities and many automobile manufacturers, in some of which strikers were joined by members of other unions.

2.5 million workers in the GSEE and ADEDY general unions, comprising around half of Greece's total workforce are to strike today.

They are demanding an end to cuts in public spending and attacks on pay and pensions.

Greece's transport network in particular is set to grind to a halt, as many airlines have already cancelled all flights in and out of the country.

Independent truckers in California's San Joaquin Valley shut down their rigs on Friday, May 2nd declaring an open-ended strike. At $4.80 a gallon, sky-rocketing diesel prices top the list of grievances. As their main demand, drivers insist on doubling the rates paid for hauling a container. The second biggest demand is a fuel surcharge of upwards of 55%.

The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire

A boat carrying an arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe is anchored at the South African port of Durban. However the South African Transport Workers' Union has already announced that their members will not offload any of the cargo, nor will any of their truckers transport it.

Launched by Greece's two largest unions, the strike has affected all public services, hospitals, banks, courts and airports. All flights out of Athens airport have been grounded after air traffic controllers, pilots and flight crews walked out, and ferry and metro systems across the country have been hit.

Aero-news.net reported that Italian carrier Alitalia canceled 217 domestic and international flights before a four-hour walkout by pilots, flight crew and ground staff beginning at 11 am. Air One, Italy's number two carrier, only guaranteed nine flights there.

Thousands joined street protests in Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities.

The 24 hour strike left many schools closed, hospitals providing a reduced service and newsagents without newspapers.

The BBC reported that the French capital's two airports and Marseille airport in the south suffered delays and cancellations.

The number of strikers seems to have stabilised at a relatively low figure of around 20% for the RATP (Paris transport) and 25% for the SNCF (rail), however this number does not reflect the effect upon services. General assemblies of rail workers cotinue to vote to continue strike action by massive majorities even thogh the number of strikers is lower.

The six unions involved in the strike (CGT, FO, CFTC, Unsa, CFE-CGC and SUD after the CFDT withdrawal on Friday) called on workers' assemblies to vote to continue strike action.

The CFDT leadership argued that as the strike was visibly weakening each day it was better to return to the negotiating table, the government demanding an end to strikes as a condition of negotiations. The number of official strikers on Friday fell to 23% on the metro and 32% on the SNCF.

The government had declared the strike illegal and had mobilised hundreds of soldiers to try to keep the railways open over the weekend. This would have been the fourth such strike in South Korea since 2000. The unions have yet to confirm why they cancelled the action, with many workers told while they were preparing pickets only an hour before the official debut of action at 4am

The keyword in current French politics is reform. Both presidential candidates claimed that France needs to modernise to be able to complete on a global level. Surveys showed that most voters identified both Royal and Sarkozy as 'candidats de la rupture' meaning that they represented a break, a break from the traditions of working class militancy and France's revolutionary and socialist past.

According to the CGT observance of the strike today (Thursday) was at 46%, 42,8% according to management, figures for yesterday were 61.5%. In Paris observance dropped from 44% yesterday to 27.2%.

The striking unions called for AGs to vote to continue the action on Friday.

The Irish Examiner reported that union SIPTU's 1,800 ground staff will be carrying out four-hour rolling stoppages in Cork, Dublin and Shannon on the two days. Last night, the severity of the action looked likely to intensify as company sources said the airline would suspend workers who took part.

The TGV ran 90 out of 700 trains. The other national service, Corail, ran only 12 trains out of a normal service of 300. With the local TER services few trains ran, although a scab service of 2000 buses was in operation. Transport authorities are promising to improve the situation tomorrow, claiming one in three TER services will run, 50 Corail and 150 TGVs.

This time the strike is reconductible, meaning that although it is not an unlimited strike it is renewable on a daily basis. The strike warning given by the unions was for a strike beginning from 8pm on Tuesday.

The 34000 striking workers belong to the GDL union and have refused the 4.5% pay offer already accepted by the two larger rail unions. They have further rejected a seperate offer of a one-off €2000 payment with a 10% rise, a condition of that offer is a two-hour increase in the working week.

The Bangkok Post reported that the State Railways of Thailand (SRT) labour union will resume striking against the Surayud government next month if the authorities fail to meet its demands involving the controversial leases of SRT property to the private sector and revision of SRT privatisation schemes.