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Protest Jams
// Truck drivers take to the highways to demand cheap fuel
Transport Workers' Union
Transport workers' unions are predicting that the largest ever action by transport workers in Russia will take place on Thursday. About half a million truck drivers are expected to join in an organized protest against the high price and low quality of fuel and to demand that the government exercise control over its cost. As a continuation of that action more than 150 trucks will drive down the Moscow Ring Road and other of the city's thoroughfares on Saturday, which may create serious difficulties for traffic flow on that day.
On December 22, 2004, the national road transport and facilities workers' union, the Association of International Automobile Carriers and the Russian Motor Transport Union sent a joint appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin demanding that the prices of fuel be lowered. The transporters complain that fuel is the greatest expense among the operating costs of Russian international road transporters. Furthermore, union leaders say that Russian diesel fuel (that is what is used in the majority of large trucks) does not meet international standards. “The problem effects not just truck drivers, but all transport, so we are concerned with the quality of both diesel fuel and gasoline,” Viktor Mokhnachev, road transport and facilities workers' union leader said. “We're ready to pay 20 rubles a liter, but give us a decent wage and adequate pension. The price of fuel is about the same in the USA as it is in Russia, but the pay is 18-25 times higher… Not that long ago, Europe moved up the introduction of the Euro-5 quality standard fuel from 2009 to November 2005 out of concern for the environment. Under that standard, the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel is to be approximately 1000 times less than what is contained in the diesel used in Russia. With standards like that, they won't let us cross the border, and foreign truckers can't haul cargo across Russia, because they won't get far on our fuel.”
“Not taking measures to curb price growth for fuel and raise its quality may force Russian road carriers to mount a national protest action,” the appeal to the president warned. Later, that action was set for February 10, 2005. Union leaders plan for more than 500,000 truck drivers to picket on foot and behind the wheel in Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Kazan and St. Petersburg. About 1000 truck drivers will gather at Gorbaty Bridge in Moscow at 9:00 a.m. and move in the direction of the White House. “It will be a warning action, at which we will deliver a memorandum to the government that will say that, if measures are not taken to lower fuel prices, we will declare a strike,” chairman of the truck drivers' general council Vasily Petrov told Kommersant.
The action on Thursday was to include an organized column of trucks to drive along the Moscow Ring Road, but that event was rescheduled for Saturday. “The Moscow city administration prohibited us from driving on Thursday, even though we have the right to do that under the law,” Petrov said. “We can't say yet where we will start from, because the GIBDD [State Traffic Safety Inspectorate] put up “No Parking” signs where about 100 trucks had planned to start from… We will go quietly, 20 km./h. That will block traffic flow and draw attention to our action,” he explained. Another 60 trucks will try to make their way up Kashira Highway to downtown Moscow. “We will go into the center of the capital, unless they stop us,” long-distance truck driver Aleksandr Kotov told Kommersant.
“That action will come to nothing,” Viktor Travin, president of the Moscow Board for the Legal Defense of Automobile Owners, predicted. “The monopoly on gasoline is too strong. The companies and the state have too many interests in it. The state makes money off of it in taxes and bribes. There is so much money operating in that business that it is profitable to ignore quality standards and even pay fines for it.” Small-time haulers, who are not taking part in the protest, agree. “We would be happy to support the protest, Sergey Korshunov, Inter Bar company director for international haulage, told Kommersant, “But every day a machine is idle costs us 2000-3000 rubles. If several trucks participated, it would be a serious loss to us. But, honestly, we have little faith that the protest will bring any results.”
At the GIBDD, when asked by Kommersant if the Saturday action would cause traffic jams on the streets of Moscow, they were hesitant to reply. “We cannot comment on the situation yet, since we have no information on the truckers' plans,” Igor Isaev, deputy head of the GIBDD of the Moscow Main Department for Internal Affairs told Kommersant.
Ivan Buranov
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 10, 2005
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