Several industrial ports in France, notably those of Marseille and Le Havre, were affected on Wednesday by a strike by dockers from the CGT union, seeking in particular recognition of their arduous work to obtain better early retirement.
Several hundred dockers from the Fos-sur-Mer basins (Bouches-du-Rhône), an integral part of the
“Grand Port Maritime de Marseille”
, one of the largest in France, gathered in the middle of the morning in front of the -prefecture of Istres where a delegation was received.
Wearing CGT vests, there were a thousand of them according to the union and 450 according to the prefecture.
“The loading and unloading of boats is experiencing a delay of a few hours in the Fos-sur-Mer basins
,” indicated the port of Marseille.
In Le Havre, another major port in France, the docks were empty at Port 2000 and no loading or unloading operations from container ships took place.
Around ten fires were lit in the port area and access blocked.
Read alsoMarseille: dockers on strike promise “total shutdown” of the port this Wednesday
To take into account arduousness
“We are blocking the ports in France first so that the government's pension reform does not apply to us and takes into account the arduousness of our work, as the Minister of Transport at the time Clément committed to doing. Beaune and President Macron in 2022 when he was campaigning
,” explained Christophe Claret, CGT general secretary of the Gulf of Fos dockers.
“Given our working conditions, it is not acceptable that we work two more years when we are forced to work staggered hours, on weekends, when many people suffer from musculoskeletal disorders and when we are faced with asbestos transported in boats
,” he added.
Thanks to a sector agreement, dockers can validate their entire career by leaving four years before the legal age which, from 58 years old, was therefore raised to 60 years old for them following the application of the pension reform initiated by the French government last year.
The dockers also want the government
to “invest 10 billion euros in port infrastructure so that French ports do not fall behind their Italian and Spanish neighbors”
, demanding that
“import-export remains the main activity of ( these) industrial ports
.