Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Food shortage expected with truck strike

SUPERMARKETS across Queensland are expected to run low on food tomorrow as angry truck drivers stand firm on their two-week strike.

Retailers, fearing the worst yesterday, started to stockpile fruit, vegetables and meat as thousands of truckies joined blockades to protest against low pay rates, new fatigue regulations and soaring fuel prices.

In Brisbane, 300 truckies backed a "go slow" through the CBD as supporters cheered them on.

National Retail Association executive director Gary Black said shops were prepared.

"Supermarkets will experience substantial depletion in stock within a couple of days," he said yesterday.

"This will mean that a range of alternative suppliers will need to be secured. At the moment, we don't think the strike action will generate sufficient momentum to have a long-term impact on supply."

However truckies said they were prepared to stick it out for the full two weeks if the Government did not act.

The strike does not have union backing, and is being pushed by two Queensland groups - the Australian Long Distance Owners and Drivers Association and the National Road Transport Forum.

NRTF spokesman Mick Pattell said the impact on grocery supplies could be huge.

Yesterday morning, 50 trucks blaring their horns entered the Brisbane CBD at Edward St, circled the Prime Minister's office at Waterfront Place and then headed up towards QUT Gardens Point, past the Botanical Gardens on Alice St.

The convoy continued back towards the city along William St, turned down Elizabeth St and back to Edward St.

The loop was repeated, motorists were forced to divert, traffic backed up on Williams St and the police were out in force

3 comments:

Unknown said...

well you can understand their plight to some degree. sometimes in order to get your message across you have to take drastic measures. people just dont realise that australia is reliant on the trucking industry our railroads are not used by the freight sector because their expensive to use if governments did their job properly we wouldn't be in the position we are in now. reduce the exise on fuel and make life a little simpler than it is for everyone its as simple as that.

Johnno said...

One of the main reasons for the strike which the media fails to recognize (as it does not sell papers as much as blaming the fuel ) is that because of the B-doubles the govt is losing out on fuel taxes. The reason being is that the trucks can now carry twice as much freight so they have doubled their rego and wracked up log book infringements and fines etc to make up for it.
Imagine having to fork out $21,000 a year for rego before you make one cent...That is the main reason for the strike...the fuel is just a part of it...I hope they stop the nation...Thats my say anyhow.

Unknown said...

Yarhhhhhhh Comrade united we stand divided we fall thats the way i feel.

But also the government and I mean Qld Govt introduced higher fines to the truckies and by law they must take more rest breaks. But the government has failed to provide enough rest stops for them.

Thats Labor for you introduce something without any planning or thought then fill in the blanks later when the cracks start appearing.

The sooner this government and the federal government are out of office the better we'll be.

Bring back Peter Costello he'll give Rudd a run for his money.