New day of strike for XPO Logistics truck drivers this Friday. In the region, the Marck site, near Calais, is concerned. There twenty drivers who work on the site will set up their picket around 7 a.m.
They have stopped work since Monday, in response to a national and inter-union call for an indefinite strike at XPO Logistics to demand a better hourly rate and the creation of a thirteenth month. To Marck, there is added the question of working conditions, complicated by migrants trying to get into trucks and the new controls linked to Brexit.
More security
Drivers in Pas-de-Calais denounce the dangers they face on a daily basis. Everyone remembers this assault with a cutter at the beginning of the year: a driver said he was attacked in Marck by migrants who wanted to get into his truck in the middle of the night, the unions report.
Because since last year, with increased surveillance of beaches, truck crossings are increasing again, sometimes with scenes of violence and drama. A young migrant hidden in a trailer died in January in the Transmarck activity zone.
“We have a certain fear of drivers being attacked, we have a certain fear of being fined“, explains José Zydower, Force Ouvrière representative of the employees of the Marck site and secretary of the Transport and Logistics Federation. These fines, of more than 2,000 eurosare those imposed on transporters by the United Kingdom if migrants are discovered in trucks once they arrive in England.
Drivers are therefore asking for more safety on the Marck site, with new guards, dogs, and better lighting in the parking lot. A negotiation meeting between unions and management is planned in Paris at 11 a.m. this Friday.
