Union tries to blockade port

LD Lines has threatened SeaFrance workers with legal action after they vowed to continue attempts to blockade the port of Boulogne in protest against the use of low-wage seafarers.

SeaFrance workers tried to blockade Boulogne on 11 and 19 June, only to be thwarted by French riot police.

SeaFrance workers’ union CFDT told IFW it would continue attempts to disrupt traffic boarding and disembarking to demonstrate against the use of "underpaid" UK and Portuguese seafarers on the UK-flagged vessel Norman Arrow.

A union official said: "We have to make a stand and highlight the poor working conditions of the Norman Arrow’s seamen.

They represent unfair competition in relation to the terms and conditions under which French seamen are employed.

"Seamen on the Norman Arrow are earning less than France’s minimum wage.

"We are demanding that LD Lines employs a French crew on this vessel as it does on others in its fleet."

LD Lines reacted angrily, labelling the SeaFrance workers "irresponsible".

MD Christophe Santoni told IFW: "How can they say that our staff are underpaid and we are low-cost? We are running vessels under French and UK flags and have signed agreements with British unions RMT and Nautilus - it’s ridiculous.

"They are trying to make the world believe they are the poor guys and we are stealing their jobs; using these stupid arguments and trying to pretend we are not paying our staff correctly."

He added: "Our service was not disrupted [when the attempted blockades took place] and if they come back we will take them to court to get justice."

Santoni accused the unions of trying to blame SeaFrance’s financial problems - it has proposed axing 543 jobs after a loss of €14m (US£19.5m) in the first four months of the year - on the launch of the Norman Arrow high-speed service this month.

"These are the unions that have been instrumental in creating the dire financial situation over many years its own company, SeaFrance, finds itself in today, " he added.

LD Lines said the new service had created around 80 jobs on the Norman Arrow and others in the ports of Dover and Boulogne.

Its parent company, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, is France’s largest employer of French crew, it added.