The World - News from May 11, 1988

Truck drivers temporarily extended a blockade of English Channel ports to Dunkirk, France, and Ostend, Belgium, to protest a three-month strike by British seamen who are refusing to let freight off arriving vessels, officials said. Hundreds of truck drivers had already blocked ferry berths at Dover, England, and Calais, France, over the British stoppage, which has severely disrupted cross-Channel freight traffic. Truck crews in Ostend blocked all traffic to ferries for six hours, and Dunkirk was reportedly blocked overnight. Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. fired some seamen last month, and the British seamen’s union has voted to stay out on strike in protest.