The quasi-insurrectionary tradition of French sectoral protest has been well in evidence through the truckers' blockade of main roads and ports for the last nine days. Their action has been highly inconvenient and destructive, especially for those trading in perishable goods with France. The latest estimates put the losses at £5 million a day for Irish exporters, an extraordinarily high sum, which underlines the scale and depth of this State's trade with that country and the rapidly escalating costs of a prolonged dispute.
People in neighbouring states have looked on in considerable astonishment at the spectacle of disruption and the apparent equanimity with which it is tolerated by France's civilian and security authorities. Such tactics of direct action are an established weapon in the transport sector, as in the agricultural one. To some extent they compensate for surprisingly weak trade union organisation, which is very low in France compared with other European states. But there can be no mistaking the militancy displayed by the truckers, nor the relatively poor conditions and pay against which they are protesting. In both respects this has earned them the sympathy and possibly the solidarity of other groups of workers who have found their circumstances deteriorate too as a result of the strong franc policy pursued by President Chirac's government in pursuit of its goal of a single European currency.
Negotiations are proceeding on earlier retirement, shorter hours and higher pay between the truckers representatives and their employers. Despite movement on hours and retirement it looks as if the pay question is proving very difficult to resolve. The government is looking on anxiously, with some encouragement by way of tax concessions. It is well aware that a prolonged dispute, or a precipitate move on its part to break the blockades, could see the conflict spread to other sectors. Persistently high unemployment, sluggish real income growth and the continuing strong franc have all added to the industrial relations tinder box which last year erupted in weeks of generalised protest against the government's expenditure cuts. They are offset, however, by a collapse of morale and confidence that protests could succeed in shifting its stance, despite a flurry of speculation in recent days that the strong currency policy might be relaxed.
There are clear limits to the patience and tolerance of those affected by the blockades, however much its victims understand the pressures on the strikers and the constraints on the government. France is a full participant in and a principal beneficiary of the single European market, which is clearly disrupted by the dispute. It is small consolation to the thousands of producers and firms from all over the rest of Europe, Ireland included, that they may seek compensation from French prefectures for fresh goods wasted and destroyed as a result. This is bound to be a long and unwieldy procedure. The amounts at stake require that urgent action be taken by the French authorities and the parties to the dispute to bring it to an end.