Picket killed in fuel protest in Spain

By Daniel Woolls | Truckers angry over soaring fuel prices blocked highways across Spain on Tuesday, disrupting supplies of food, gasoline, auto parts and other goods. A protester was killed when he was run over by a van trying to drive through a picket line.The strike, which began Monday, is the most serious labor unrest facing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a Socialist who came to power in March 2004.

Three auto plants — one each from Nissan, Mercedes Benz and Volkswagen’s subsidiary Sociedad Espaola de Automviles de Turismo — said they were suspending operations for lack of spare parts.

And some gasoline stations in Madrid and the northeastern Catalonia region already have run out of fuel.

Vendors at Mercamadrid, Madrid’s sprawling wholesale market, warned of shortages of fruit, vegetables and meat this week if the strike continues.

Truckers say diesel costs have risen 36 percent in one year to more than $7 a gallon.

The protester, the first fatality of the stoppage, was knocked down by a van at a picket line outside the wholesale market in Granada, the Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said the van driver, who has been detained, accelerated and hit the man when protesters began to throw stones after he tried to drive past the pickets.

The death prompted the suspension of a second day of talks between the government and truckers’ representatives.

In a similar protest in Hong Kong, truckers were driving slowly to disrupt traffic and protest rising fuel costs.

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