Traffic jams at sea and at quayside. Since Tuesday, the port of Marseille has been blocked, a consequence of the “dead port” operation launched for seventy-two hours by the CGT to protest against the pension reform. A call followed to the letter in the seven major French seaports (Dunkirk, Le Havre, Rouen, Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle, Bordeaux and Marseille). “Even the small ports have taken initiatives, depending on their configuration. We are all in the same process ”, ensures Pascal Galéoté, CGT delegate for Marseille port agents, who met his counterparts from other ports in Paris on Wednesday. From Marseille to Fos, for three days, no more goods have entered or left by sea. In front of each access door, the strikers have installed large concrete blocks to prevent any traffic, forcing passengers to ferries, massed along the quays, with an interminable wait.
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“Ruined”. Doubly interminable even, since another strike movement, independent of pensions, affects Marseille traffic: since last Friday, the agents of the maritime company La Méridionale have blocked several of their boats, but also those of the competitor Corsica Linea. Objective: to obtain an agreement to share the service to Corsica. Corsica Linea has already announced the cancellation of all its crossings until Friday. Same price for ships leaving for the Maghreb: most of them were unable to set sail this week. According to Provence, passengers of Tariq ibn Ziyad, which was to set sail for Algiers on Wednesday, finally succeeded in forcing the entry of one of the access gates on Thursday to board the ship of the Algerian Ferries company. The latter left the port around 3 p.m.
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For the rest of the activity, especially freight, we had to wait for the gradual release of the facilities, Thursday at the end of the day, for a return to normal. For three days, several ships were indeed forced to wait at sea while on the road side, no truck was able to access the cargo area. “The successive” dead port “operations for six weeks have ruined all efforts to revive the maritime industry”, the transport federations commented in a joint statement, asking the State to unblock the facilities. “Send the police, to do what?” retorts Pascal Galéoté of the CGT. Dockers, port agents, ship repair, sailors… all are simply exercising their right to strike, they will not unload the boats. The carriers would do better to ask the government to withdraw its reform, because we are not going to stop. ”
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Actions. Before new more symbolic actions, such as the blocking of the administrative headquarters of the port scheduled for this Friday, Marseille port agents joined the ranks of the demonstration against the reform Thursday morning, which brought together 110,000 people according to the inter-union (8,000 according to the police). The CGT federation of ports and docks should announce this Friday the program of upcoming actions, with probably a new call for blocking next week. “We have to hit the economy to be heard, explains Pascal Galéoté. The local employers’ union spoke of thousands of euros in losses this week, it hurts. So we must continue. ”
Stéphanie Harounyan Correspondent in Marseille
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