Marseille Port Employees Stop Work for Union-Led Meetings

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Jan 2008

Employees at the Port of Marseille stopped work for a union meeting yesterday on a government plan to overhaul cargo-handling at the country's harbors. Similar talks are planned in two days at the nearby Fos-Lavera oil terminals. ''The meetings are to inform the port employees,'' Pascal Galeote, a representative of the Confederation Generale du Travail, or CGT, said from Marseille.Asked whether strikes are planned over the changes, he said, ''We aren't there yet.'' The meeting in two days at Fos-Lavera is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. Paris time and last about 1 1/2 hours, Galeote said. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Jan. 14 the government will sell container-handling operations to private operators and increase spending to renovate and enlarge ports.The CGT union, which represents a majority of workers at the ports of Marseille and Fos-Lavera, has long said it's against transferring cargo-handling employees, who include crane operators, to private companies.The CGT-led Federation Nationale des Ports et Docks ''favors negotiation,'' the union said in a Jan. 22 statement after meeting with French Transport Minister Dominique Bussereau. The union ''will put off a social conflict of the same intensity and character as European port battles against directives in 2001 and 2005.''Under the government plan, directors of French ports including Marseille are holding meetings with employees and local companies to report back to the government on the planned changes by Feb. 15, Claire Battedou, a spokeswoman for the Port of Marseille, said by telephone.  The government intends to pass a law on the changes before June 30. A CGT-led strike last year at the Port of Marseille paralyzed traffic for 2 1/2 weeks, stranding 63 ships.