Shipping lines are warning of delays to cargo as another round of strike action brings container handling to a standstill at France’s busiest container ports.
Port operations at Le Havre and Marseilles will be disrupted when members of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) stage weekend walk-outs in protest at French government plans to transfer some jobs to the private sector.
This follows strikes at ports across France earlier this week that disrupted container handling.
Maersk Line said: “While good progress has been made so far, the national negotiation on the French port reform is not finalised yet.
“However, as a new meeting between government and unions is expected next week, it is not certain that strikes will be maintained and we will keep [customers] regularly posted.”
It added that some vessels were waiting outside Le Havre and Marseilles after being given a berthing window, while others had skipped the port.
Cargo on vessels diverted from Le Havre would be put on feeder services and taken as close as possible to its original destination.
Hapag-Lloyd said it was suspending calls at Marseilles.
“Due to current strike actions at Fos [Marseilles] by the port workers and crane drivers, Hapag-Lloyd cannot offer its customers the reliable service they are entitled to.”
It advised customers that all export shipments should be diverted to Barcelona or Genoa, at the cost of the shipper, while imports would also be diverted to these ports.
Export shipments already at the port would also be transferred to Barcelona or Genoa. However, it warned it reserved the right to introduce a transhipment surcharge.
CMA CGM said it was doing “everything to maintain the calls of its services at Le Havre, despite very difficult conditions”.
Unless negotiations succeed, Le Havre’s crane drivers and dock workers plan to stop working from 10pm tonight until 6am tomorrow.
The dock workers will launch a further, 24-hour strike, from 6am on Sunday, 9 January.
At Marseilles, crane drivers will strike from 8pm tonight until 3am tomorrow and again from 6am on Sunday until 3am on Monday, 10 January.
Dockers will strike from 6am tomorrow until 3am on Monday.
The two groups are also staging one-hour strikes in the mornings and afternoons on alternative days, and all overtime has been cancelled.