High fuel prices: truck strikes in Italy leave supermarket shelves empty

Supermarkets in Naples look as if they had been looted: fruit and vegetable shelves in particular are empty. Meat, fish and dairy products are also completely missing. And in those small fruit shops that still have goods, prices are skyrocketing. For example, a kilo of tomatoes costs 10 euros.

However, the supermarkets were not actually looted – as was the case last weekend in France. There were also some violent protests by young people in Italy. But there is another reason for the empty supermarket shelves: truck drivers in Italy have been on strike for almost two weeks. The protest began in Sicily. At first convoys hindered traffic, then drivers from other southern regions also took part: in Apulia, Calabria, and then Campania with the most important southern metropolis of Naples.

Why? The truckers are bitter about the sharp rise in diesel prices and are demanding support from the government under Giorgia Meloni, which is celebrating its four-year anniversary this Thursday. So far she has only had warm words for her: Meloni described the walkout as a positive counter-example to the violent riots in Milan and called it a “peaceful protest”. The positive words are probably also due to the fact that the majority of the striking truckers are politically right-wing.

On Tuesday, the Meloni government also showed a willingness to talk: Transport Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the Lega and deputy prime minister, met with representatives of various industry organizations from the freight forwarding industry and ultimately agreed to release 490 million euros that the government had already promised in tax relief in May.

The larger industry associations declared themselves satisfied with this, but the rank-and-file committees leading the strike in the south continue to strike. Above all, they demand the abolition of the fuel tax, which amounts to 25 cents per liter for diesel.

So truckers in Palermo temporarily blocked the port. Sections of highways and refineries were also blocked.

Since the beginning of the week, Italians have been able to see the consequences on the TV news every evening if they do not experience them live as citizens of the southern regions. In addition to the empty supermarket shelves, numerous gas stations have run out of gasoline and diesel. The municipal transport company as well as the Naples garbage collection announced that they would have to stop operations. Various airports in southern Italy, from Palermo to Catania to Reggio Calabria, have also run out of kerosene supplies.

Agriculture is also feeling the drastic consequences. The wholesale markets for fruit and vegetables in southern Italy have not been supplied for days, causing millions in damages to farmers. The production of buffalo mozzarella in Campania also had to stop: the finished mozzarella could neither be transported away nor did buffalo milk reach the manufacturers. The mozzarella producers estimate their losses at 3 million euros per day. But industrial companies are now also complaining about production downtimes because parts are not being delivered.

The protests were not entirely free of violence: truck drivers who were not ready to strike reported that their tires were slashed by colleagues. A trucker told the Italian news agency Ansa that he had been forced to drive to a motorway service station. He was then refused further travel from there and he felt “taken hostage”.

The government is responding to the ongoing protests in three ways: First, by Thursday afternoon, 71 complaints had been issued against striking truckers. Secondly, the police have been escorting transports of medicine and food since Wednesday. Thirdly, the government passed a legislative decree on Thursday that increases aid payments for the freight forwarding industry as well as for farmers to around 1 billion euros. And finally, Transport Minister Salvini promised the trucker base committees in southern Italy that he would meet them on October 27th for further negotiations.