A truce in the fuel truckers’ conflict – reached during talks on Tuesday – has broken down.
News last night was that the plans for a second strike (translating into another nationwide fuel delivery blockade) are back on the cards – not for Friday May 17 as previously intimated but for almost a week later, scheduled to start at one minute past midnight on Thursday May 23.
The Syndicate of Drivers of Dangerous Materials (SNMMP) blames the return to industrial action on “false statements” being released by ANTRAM, the association representing employers.
As with the first strike that ‘paralysed’ the country just before Easter, this second initiative has been given no time-limit.
SDMMP’s vice-president Pedro Pardal Henriques has warned it will pack an even greater punch than the first as the syndicate now has more members.
The only chink of light in the situation is that the government says it will be mediating between SDMMP and ANTRAM in the hope that the strike will be called off.
