French dockers strike October 12, bent on crippling port reform

FRENCH dockers are expected to stage another national port strike Tuesday October 12 in an escalating campaign to force the government to slow if not abandon port reforms to privatise cargo handling and transfer workers from the public to the private sector.

Strike action has involved reducing the workday by an hour or a shift since January; A "work-to rule" go-slow has been in effect since September 15. All weekend work has stopped since October 1, when all ports were strike bound.


State-employed crane drivers and port workers also protested plans to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62 years, reported London`s Containerisation International.


The French shippers council, l`Association des Utilisateurs de Transport de Fret (AUTF) called for an end to the strikes, claiming they have lost business too rival ports. "We will be left with a weakened port system. Port professionals will have disappeared as well as a good number of exporters` clients," said AUTF secretary general Philippe Bonnevie.


The French shipowners association (Armateurs de France) has also demanded an end to the labour strife, saying that the port reform legislation is necessary to make French ports competitive.