CAIRO - In a stormy parliamentary session on Tuesday night, the spokesman for the nation's lorry drivers has warned that truckers will go on another strike now that the Government has failed to respond to their demands. "The Ahmed Nazif Government has not kept its promise to reduce taxes and registration fees on trucks and reconsider a clause in a 2008 Traffic Law, which bans the trailers from the nation's roads in 2011," Magdi Abbas of the Lorry Owners Association said. Addressing members of the Industry Committee of the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Parliament), Abbas said that the majority of drivers had agreed to continue the strike to send the Government a message that they would fight for their rights. “If the Government is firm about not renewing licences for lorries in 2012, then it should bear the consequences, the least of which is an increase in the prices of basic commodities, when the truck drivers escalate their action and go on strike," Abbas warned. The drivers are expected to announce the start of another open-ended strike and the holding of a meeting to discuss possible escalatory measures, he said, without giving any specific dates. He added that the drivers are demanding the annulment of the clause under which they have been ordered to remove the trailers from their trucks, alleging that they were not consulted before the Government ordered these modifications three years ago. However, Abbas lashed out at an LE15 billion soft loan offered by the Government to truck owners to modify their vehicles in compliance with the Traffic Law before it is fully enforced in 2012 “We are opposed to the fact that the Government wants to go ahead with this plan. It is a waste of money and effort,” he said. The truck drivers' strike, which has been suspended, started last December in protest against the unpopular clause. The Government has stood firm against the drivers' demands, despite the strike, which has slowed transportation to and from the nation's markets and seaports. Abbas has warned that the situation could become critical if the Government insists on its stance. But the Government says that it will not back down. "The clause is essential and the Government is committed to it and will go ahead with it to curb traffic accidents," Major General Serag Zaghloul, the head of an ad-hoc traffic police unit, told the meeting.
