Violence erupts as truckers’ fuel strike chokes off supplies

Press, 16 June 1979, Page 8

Violence erupts as truckers’ fuel strike chokes off supplies

i I NZPA-Reuter 1 Montgomery, Alabama [ I Armed National Guards-' [men escorted fuel tankers' through Alabama yesterday j I to prevent violence in a[ [spreading strike by indepen-! dent truck drivers across the' United States. The strike, over high fuel; prices, has begun to hit food and petrol supplies in some states. A spokesman for the Independent Truckers’ Association estimated that 60 per cent of the 120,000 independent nvner-drivers in the country were now off the road. The Governor of Alabama (Mr Forest James) ordered ; National Guardsmen out to J patrol state highways after I the wife of a driver defying | the strike was shot and [badly wounded. I The woman, Linda Pruett, aged 20, was hit by a sniper near Tuscaloosa while riding with her husband for the first time on a trip. She was listed as in a critical condition ir hospital with a bullet in her rib cage. There have been several: shooting incidents, none of! I them serious, in the past inj [Alabama, Tennessee, Mis- | sissippi, Indiana, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Stones have also been thrown through windscreens, tyres slashed, and at least; two vehicles set on fire. It was non-violent protests. however, that were I causing the most disruption las strikers blockaded some'

highwrys and drove convoys: into state capitals snarling traffic. ■ The truck drivers are deimanding that the Governiment force down high fuel [prices, guarantee them adequate diesel supplies, standardise weight and load regulations, and raise the speed limit from 90 to 105 km/h. In the meantime, in Washington the Senate has voted to provide SUS4BOM in Federal loan guarantees for the production of gasohol, a mixture of petrol and alcohol that is being tested as an alternative to petrol. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives. The alcohol used in the gasohol mixture comes from grain, corn, or sugar. The mixture is usually 10 per cent alcohol and 90 per cent petrol. At the same time a Congressional committee has virtually completed a bill to levy some SUS26.B billion in Federal taxes on the windfall profits that oil companies will get from President Carter’s decision to end price controls on domestically produced oil. The House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee’s proposed legislation is tougher than Mr Carter’s windfall tax. Mr Carter ordered Federal price controls on domestically produced oil removed over a 27-month period that started on June 1.

1 His idea was to raise, prices for consumers to dis-; courage them from buying! [oil and to give producers a. (higher price to encourage, [them to find new oil, thus; [reducing reliance on foreign; [oii. I In Brussels, European! [ Economic Community checks [ show that world oil traders! have virtually doubled the' quantity of oil they are offering at inflated prices on the Rotterdam spot market. E.E.C. Commission officials said that their latest check on the Rotterdam market, the largest free market for crude and refined oi! products, showed it was now; handling 8 per cent of world] trade, 3 to 5 per cent higher [than before. I A standard barrel of oil [was reported to be fetching iup to SUS3S on the Rotter|dam market this week, more; [than double the official pritel of $U514.55 and well above! the SUS2O a barrel believed; charged- by some Arab pro-; ducers. In Paris, the industrial democracies have warned their peoples that they will have to accept painful measures to save energy or face far worse economic consequences. A communique issuedj after the Ministerial conference of the Organisation forj Economic Co-operation and: Development said: “There is no escape from the reduction of real incomes caused by higher prices for imported oil.”