Industries dependent on fuel fight back in Europe. Jesse Russell Reports:

Earlier this year, the President George W. Bush said he didn’t think the United States would see an average fuel price of $4 per gallon. Well, contrary to the President's wishful thinking that day has come and the spiking cost of oil isn’t only hit Americans hard. In Europe, motorists are seeing prices nearly double what it is in the US. Some 70,000 Spanish truckers on Monday formed a blockade along the border with France bringing traffic in and out of the country to a virtual stand still. Some Portuguese truckers on the western border of the country also participated. And in France, truckers began easing off the gas and slowing traffic in advance of a planned national strike next week. European countries post higher taxes on fuel costs and as a result, truckers in Europe are paying on average the equivalent of $7.73 per gallon. As a result of the strike, late on Monday gas stations in northeastern began running out of fuel. According to Spanish news reports, many vehicles that attempted to cross the truckers blockade ended up with smashed windshields or slashed tires.

A country-wide transportation strike gripping France swelled yesterday as state employees joined in. Jesse Russell reports.

Last Tuesday six transportation unions launched a protest that nearly brought France to a grinding halt. Trains running on time or at all became a novelty, forcing many commuters to drive to work resulting in massive traffic jams. President Nicolas Sarkozy buckled in some of his demands yesterday after the unions refused to return to work and instead chose to stay out of work as a separate protest involving state workers began. However, the government is finally claiming victory in some of the most important points in contention. According to a report in the "Times of London", one of the six main unions has accepted that they must give up their right to early retirement. However, another union which controls 14 percent of the railways in the country has vowed to stay on strike until early retirement is provided to the entire county.

By Jesse Russell

French transportation workers could stage more strikes if the government doesn’t reconsider slashing pensions. The workers have threatened to time their next strike at the same time as a planned civil service strike on November 20th. The government is seeking to trim the bureaucracy by cutting back on workers. The public transportation workers already put the brakes on the country when they started a four day strike on Thursday. According to one of the transport unions that was just a small taste as the next strike could last as many as ten days.

By Jesse Russell

Next Friday postal workers in the UK plan to stage their first strike in nearly ten years. Nearly 130,000 postal workers will walk off the job on June 29 accusing the Royal Mail of misleading the public by saying that the union was demanding a 27 percent pay increase and is against modernizing. The Communication Workers Union says the Royal Mail is cutting service, jobs and pay. The strike will come two days after new Prime Minister Gordon Brown takes office.

By Jesse Russell

More than 15,000 workers for Deutsche Telekom walked off the job across the European Union on Friday to protest plans to move 50,000 jobs, slash pay by nine percent, and extend working hours. The workers' union is calling on more workers to walkout. The company says if talks don't resume it may have to sell the entire 80,000 worker division.

By Jesse Russell

More than 15,000 workers for Deutsche Telekom walked off the job across the European Union on Friday to protest plans to move 50,000 jobs, slash pay by nine percent, and extend working hours. The workers' union is calling on more workers to walkout. The company says if talks don't resume it may have to sell the entire 80,000 worker division.

By Jesse Russell

Organized labor in France is gearing up for a face off with newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy. The newly elected hardline conservative has promised an “economic revolution” in the fall if he can obtain a right wing majority during parliamentary elections next month. He wants to weaken the power of workers to strike, lengthen the 35-hour work week, and cut back on public services. Since the election results were announced France has faced riots across the country resulting in thousands of arrests.

By Doug Cunningham

The powerful German union IG Mettal is pledging solidarity with UAW members at Chrysler. The union says it will stop the sale of Chrysler to hedge funds or private equity groups. DaimlerChrysler is calling for bids for Chrysler by the end of the month. The union sits on Dailmer-Chrylser’s board of directors and is a powerful industrial union in Germany. It says it will not let Chrysler fall to what it called “locusts” who will strip assets from the auto company to enrich investors.

By Doug Cunningham

In a new Center for Economic and Policy Research report, economist John Schmitt takes a look at whatever happened to the American jobs machine. Europe has been outperforming the U.S. in jobs creation and they’re doing it while keeping national health insurance, a stronger social safety net than the U.S. and a more powerful labor movement with more worker protections and benefits than the U.S. Schmitt argues that Europe may be creating more jobs than the U.S. because of its better labor protections and social safety net.

[John Schmitt] : "They have a lot of economic success and they have a lot of benefits for workers. Certainly for me the idea of having stronger unions, having a higher minimum wage, having guaranteed health insurance for everybody, having mandated legal requirements for paid vacation and for sick leave and similar sorts of worker protections I think are very important. And we're much richer than Europe. We oughta be able to figure out how we do that and have that here as well."

By Doug Cunningham

France’s Trade Union Congress – the CGT labor federation – is supporting 45 Teamsters on strike against Paris-based Arkema in Pennsylvania. The CGT vows to stand with the Teamsters in a struggle against pay cut demands, health care concessions and retirement benefits cuts. The Teamster Arkema strike is in its eighth week. The CGT says French workers know that the company is trying to divide workers by national borders in an effort to drive down wages, benefits and retirement security for its employees worldwide. Arkema makes resins used by Harley-Davidson and Nike among others. In 2004 it had global sales of $6 billion dollars.

By Jesse Russell

With oil prices at record levels, a five-week strike by oil workers in Norway has come to an end. The more than 2500 workers represented by the Norwegian Oil and Petrochemical Workers' Union signed off on a two-year agreement that secured a 5.9 percent pay increase. Mediation with the two sides took more than a month. Of the more than 2500 workers, only 87 were on strike affecting three of Norway's oil rigs, however, the union had threatened to send more workers to the pickets if an agreement could not be reached. Norway is the world's third largest oil exporter behind Saudia Arabia and Russia.

By Doug Cunningham

The massive French worker-student protests have succeeded in getting a new labor law that discriminates against younger workers tossed out. French President Jacques Chirac says the law – called the first employment contract or CPE - will be abolished and replaced with new measures to try to deal with youth unemployment.

Students began protesting the new law that would have allowed employers to fire workers 26 and younger without cause within two years of hiring them. Unions joined the student protests, putting millions of people into the streets nationwide in France to vigorously oppose the law.

By Doug Cunningham

Powerful student-labor protests in France once again brought approximately a million people into the streets Tuesday protesting a new labor law allowing employers to fire younger workers without cause within two years of hiring. On the verge of winning their battle to eliminate the new law, unions are meeting with government officials today. Helene Bonneau is with the French labor federation CGT.

[Helene Bonneau 1]: "The whole thing is to now compel government not to implement it and to withdraw this."

Bonneau says this is not just a struggle for young workers.

[Bonneau 2]: "It's not only their future which is at stake but the future of all workers in this country which is at stake."

By Jesse Russell

No Irish Ferries vessels set sail on Monday as both sides refuse to budge from demands. Members of Service, Industrial, professional and Technical Unions remain barricaded aboard two of the company’s four vessels. The workers are concerned with the company’s intention to replace more than 500 employees with cheaper labor from Eastern Europe. The union has called for an investigation after Irish Ferries used security guards dressed like passengers to attempt to install non-unionized replacement workers. The company has also been accused of not allowing union representatives on board the vessels to speak with members.

By Jesse Russell

More than 30 ferry workers in Ireland have barricaded themselves aboard passenger ships with what they say is enough provisions to last until Christmas. The move is the latest in an escalating dispute over the outsourcing of jobs. Irish Ferries is seeking to replace more than 500 Irish seafarers with cheaper labor from Eastern Europe. Workers are barricaded in ships at two docks with port workers at two other docks refusing to receive an Irish Ferry ship coming in from France on Sunday. The company says it will attend exploratory talks with Irelands Labour Relations Commission in hopes to find a solution.

By Doug Cunningham

Helene Bonneau of the French labor federation CGT says the violent destruction of vehicles and other property in France that started in suburbs of Paris is rooted in social deprivation and repression.

[Helene Bonneau 1] : "It's repression. And the kids, even when they don't do nothing in these neighborhoods - in those suburbs - they can be arrested at any time by the police. And the police are violent. And well, the kids are totally fed up with it."

She says Paris is NOT burning, it's the poor, predominantly immigrant population suburbs that revolted when French Home Secretary Nicholas Sarkozi made provocative statements after limited violence first flared following the accidental electrocution of two youths who were fleeing police. Bonneau says joblessness, dilapidated housing, police repression and the breakdown of education and other public services in the poor suburbs are the root causes of the violence.

By Jesse Russell

British Airways is planning to punish the three union shop stewards that the company claims were behind the Heathrow solidarity strikes in August. After 670 Gate Gourmet staff members were fired, more than 1,000 members of British Airways support staff walked off in solidarity. The Transport and General Workers Union says it may call for a formal strike if three stewards are sacked.

By Jesse Russell

European sex workers, both mael and female, held a press conference at the European Parliament yesterday demanding that their profession be recognized as work. The sex workers are seeking the same social rights extended to other industries. The workers believe that regualting prostitution and other forms of sex work across the EU would decrease exploitation, slavery and increase the willingness of most to pay taxes.

Attempting to put pressure on French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, to address high unemployment and a rising cost of living in that country, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets Tuesday. Labor organizations estimated that more than 1 million people took part in nearly 150 demonstrations across France. The unions have threatened to organize more massive demonstrations if their concerns aren't addressed. In a poll, 72-percent of the French thought the protests were justified.

By Jesse Russell

A bitter dispute between airline catering company Gate Gourmet and workers in the UK is close to being resolved. The company, in an attempt to reduce costs at Heathrow Airport, had slashed more than 650 jobs resulting in a solidarity walkout by ground staff at British Airways grounding more than 700 flights. On Wednesday workers voted overwhelemingly to support a deal that would give nearly 400 of the workers their jobs back.