Pension reform: blockades of ports in Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, Brest, Le Havre and Calais

Europe 1 with AFP 18:30 p.m., March 16, 2023

The ports of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, but also those of Brest, Le Havre and Calais were at a standstill Thursday as part of the day "dead ports" launched by the CGT to fight against the pension reform, we learned from the prefectures and the CGT. Asked about the situation at the port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, the prefecture confirmed to AFP that "the port is at a standstill, it is blocked". The strikers began setting up barricades on Wednesday evening to block the SFDM fuel depot in Donges, on part of the port, and this blockade was still ongoing Thursday morning, an AFP correspondent found.

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'Keeping up the pressure'

Tanker trucks, which could not access the state-owned depot, were parked on the side of the road. An AFP photographer found that access to the oil depot was blocked by two burning roadblocks, preventing trucks from passing. The objective is to "maintain pressure on the government and the National Assembly," Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, CGT delegate at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges, told AFP on Wednesday evening, where the strike is to continue until Friday 13:30 p.m., when a new general assembly is to be held.

The port of Brest was also blocked Thursday morning, AFP found. About fifty strikers, port workers and dockers, were on site. Three containers, installed using carrier equipment, blocked the access route to the port. "There is no entry or exit of goods in the port of Brest today," said Sébastien Léon, a CGT port worker union delegate. A "dead ports" operation had already been carried out by strikers in Brest last week.

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No entry or exit

In Le Havre, access to port terminals had been blocked since 6:00 am, by trucks, cranes, tire and pallet fires, according to the CGT federation of ports and docks (FNPD). No passenger handling or handling operation was planned by port agents and dockers until Friday morning 6:00. Not a single oil tanker, not a container ship enters or leaves, nor does ferries and cruise ships, another AFP correspondent found.

In Calais also, the strikers blocked the port at the call of the CGT since 10:30, preventing trucks and private vehicles from accessing ferries to the United Kingdom, said a CGT delegate, Aurélien Delcloy. Trucks were stranded for several kilometres in load shedding zones along roads leading to the port.