Private dump truck operators feuding with the provincial government over fees say they will demonstrate in Premier Shawn Graham’s home village of Rexton today.

Peter Turner, spokesman for the New Brunswick Dump Truck Association, also said yesterday that a much larger protest is planned for Fredericton next week.

“We want to get out as many people as we can,” he said of the Fredericton demonstration.

The association, which claims to represent 1,200 truckers, says that high fuel prices make it impossible for private dump truck operators to make a living based on what the provincial government currently pays.

Last week, the association announced a boycott of government work.

“We are going to stay parked, said Turner yesterday.

“We are doing the safe thing by pulling our trucks off the road because we can’t afford to keep our trucks safe.”

He also said the truckers, who protested at a job site near Moncton earlier this week, will block other highway projects in the future.

Turner said the truckers thought they had reached a deal last month to avoid a boycott in which the government would pay for work by the hour instead of by the distance and weight of the material carried.

“They breached their contract with us,” he said.

But Transportation Minister Denis Landry said there was no such deal.

The truckers say they need another 20 per cent raise to go back to work.

Landry said that would cost the government $100,000 per percentage point.