Pay Protest Jams French Gas Depots

MARSEILLE, France â€”  French truck drivers blocked refineries and oil depots Monday, snarling traffic and triggering a run on gasoline in some areas, unions said.

Drivers, protesting over working hours, blocked at least 12 refineries and oil depots mostly in the south.

“We will not move until the government and employers sit down to negotiate,� Andre Ambrosino, a Marseille-based official at the CGT union, said.

Unions said they had targeted France’s key petrochemical and refining hub near Marseille and Avignon in the south, but action had spread across the country to refineries in Dunkirk and other towns in the north.

TotalFinaElf, the largest refiner in France, said the protests had not affected its stocks or supplies.

Truckers in Rouen, Caen and Tours in the northwest caused traffic jams, and others paralyzed a toll station, which led to motorists driving by free.

The drivers say they are not being paid for all the hours they work because the government’s 35-hour workweek does not factor in their compulsory rest breaks.

Truckers blocked two refineries near the western town of Bordeaux, shutting off gasoline supplies to main shopping centers and gas stations in the southwest.

Others blocked at least 10 transport depots near Marseille, preventing trucks that supply large retail chains from leaving or entering, unions said.

“More than 300 people are now mounting barricades, and there are more every hour,� one union source said. Another said the action would get worse during the day and that truckers would target other key refineries.