French truckers plan blocks as wage talks loom

Paris - French truck drivers plan on blockages to disrupt traffic on key roads starting from Sunday evening as union members said they were preparing for a tough fight to secure a 5% pay rise at Tuesday's wage talks.

Unions have called on truckers to block access to fuel depots, major warehouses, the vast Rungis wholesale food market in the south of Paris, as well as roads around the capital's Roissy international airport.

"I don't expect them to yield unless they (employers) have a knife to their throats," said Thierry Douine, who heads the transportation branch of the CFTC union, one of France's top five unions.

"In this industry, I gave up believing in Santa Claus a long time ago," he told Reuters.

Unions are also demanding bonuses equivalent to a month's pay, while employers have so far offered only a 1% wage rise.

Employers said they were prepared to raise their offer to 2%, but have ruled out a higher pay increase, according to Nicolas Paulissen, an official at the FNTR national road transport association.

"Five percent is way out of reach for companies and it's totally out of sync with the situation. There's no industry that can offer 5 percent now in France," Paulissen told Reuters.

If the union's action runs beyond Tuesday, it could have an impact on economic activity, already cool as consumers sit out the winter sales season following attacks this month in Paris by Islamist militants that killed 17 people.

Any major action could also become a headache for President Francois Hollande's Socialist government, which has seen a resurgence of popularity - albeit from low levels - on account of its handling of the attacks.

Truckers and farmers disrupted traffic around France for weeks in 2013 with go-slow operations against a planned tax on heavy road transport, forcing the government to eventually abandon the levy.