[140111.EN.SEA] Strikes at French Ports Expected To End Monday

FRENCH dockers have staged walkouts that will close shipside operations at the ports and suspend container pick-ups and deliveries until 6am Monday when work will resume.

The ports of Le Havre, Marseilles Fos, Montoir and Brest said they would keep gates open for 24 hours Friday to facilitate shoreside operations.

Marseilles-Fos terminals were blocked, according to Claire Battedou, a spokeswoman for the port told Bloomberg, though oil facilities were unaffected.

Nineteen containerships cancelled calls at Le Havre over the last two days while the docking of five bulk carriers was delayed. Again, oil movements were unaffected.

The Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT), France's biggest dockers union, have called for strikes to run through until Monday to protest later retirement provisions and port privatisation schemes.

Rouen dockers have not confirmed strike action, but Danish shipping giant Maersk Line asked customers to contact service agents for information. Dunkirk's workers transferred to the private sector so operations will run as usual.

Talks with the government on strike action over transfer privatisation plans broke down at the beginning of the week after last weekend's walk out by CGT dockers and crane drivers at Le Havre and Marseilles, and recent disrupted container handling across France.

"The congestion at Marseilles Fos resulting from the labour stoppages is causing major disruption in our schedules and port calls," said Germany's Hapag-Lloyd now re-routing vessels to discharge cargo at Genoa, Italy instead, cited a report from London's International Freighting Weekly.

The on-off 12 month strike action in French ports is likely to damage its credibility on the Mediterranean and on the North Sea, said West Ports at Deutsche Bahn port representative Ummo Bruns.

"Shipowners will not be pleased with the present developments. If France is interested in keeping up with the pace of the ports in the Rhine Scheldt Delta, they must move quickly," he added.

Source : HKSG, 14.01.11.