French Container Traffic Stops

Container handling came to a standstill Monday at France’s seven largest ports as dockworkers staged the first of two 24-hour strikes to protest government reforms of box terminal operations.

Around 3,300 dockworkers and port workers walked off the job at Le Havre, France’s biggest container port, halting all general cargo and bulk traffic. Oil products traffic and ferry services to and from the UK were operating as normal.

Marseilles, France’s biggest port, was also seriously affected, with most cargo traffic at a standstill and 17 ships prevented from sailing. Crude oil shipments and ferry sailings to North Africa were notaffected by the walkout.

Dockworkers also struck at Dunkirk, Rouen, Bordeaux, Nantes-Saint Nazaire and La Rochelle.

The CGT union, which represents most French dockworkers, called the strike to protest what it says is the government’s failure to honor a pledge to create up to 30,000 new waterfront jobs as part of a reform program at publicly owned ports.

The most controversial part of the reform is the transfer of around 2,000 container crane operators and terminal maintenance staff from port authority payrolls to private stevedores.

The union has called a second strike next Monday, Jan. 11, if the government does not respond to dockworkers’ grievances.

Dockworkers staged three months of rolling strikes in early 2008 but called off their action after Parliament voted for the reforms.

The union resumed industrial action with a 24 hour nationwide port strike Nov. 6 claiming the government has done nothing to improve dockworkers’ job security while spending billions to bail out banks and auto manufacturers.

The government says the reforms will improve productivity at French ports and attract an estimated two million containers of imports and exports that are currently shipped through foreign ports, including Rotterdam, Antwerp and Barcelona.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.