Up to 40 lorries parked along the entrance to the Roadstone quarry in Castlebar yesterday to protest over rates of pay.
Local independent hauliers staged the protest early yesterday morning, after talks between themselves and Roadstone management failed on Wednesday night.
According to Martin Hopkins, a spokesman for the local hauliers, the protest will continue indefinitely.
"We have no choice, we want legal rates for legal weights," he said. "The gardaí are enforcing the legal requirement on hauliers to carry legal lorry loads and are coming down hard on those who ignore the law. We want to comply with the new legislation but we can only do so if our rates are increased accordingly."
Mr Hopkins said they were being paid the 2000 rate by Roadstone and despite continuing consultation since last July the company was refusing to increase the rate. "This is our livelihood and we can't live with a loss of 14 per cent of our income since the new weight restriction laws have been introduced. There's 40 lorries idle, parked along this road this morning and we'll wait here until we get a satisfactory response."
He said the protest action was indefinite and there were no lorries going in and out of the plant as a result.
He said that Wednesday, management at Roadstone "offered us a new rate, which we could not accept, and in addition wanted us to sign contracts. We can't do that as we are independent hauliers," Mr Hopkins concluded.
Last night management at Roadstone said it had been in negotiations with the hauliers and an offer was made which, it said, would result in a significant increases in the rates payable to the independent hauliers.