FRANCE: Work at several of Europe's biggest ports ground to a halt yesterday as dockers staged a one-day strike to protest against EU plans to open port services to more competition.
About 6,000 workers at Antwerp, Europe's second-largest port, and 600 dockers at Rotterdam took part in the strike, which also affected ports in Greece, Denmark, Sweden, France, Portugal and Spain. Irish ports were unaffected by the stoppage.
Dock workers are protesting against a proposed EU directive that would liberalise port services across the bloc and allow seamen on ships to offload and load cargo.
The directive is due to be debated today by the European Parliament in Strasbourg and voted on later this week.
It is anticipated that a coalition of socialists, communists and liberals
will reject the EU legislation,
which has been strongly promoted by industry.
Trade unions fear that if the port's directive is passed into law it would erode the working rights of dockers and lead to thousands of job losses across the EU.
"We have two concerns," said a spokesman for the Belgian transport federation union at Antwerp port. "The first is safety and the other is the conditions of employment."
Under the proposed directive seamen on ships would be able to handle cargo, a job currently restricted to dock workers in EU member states.
"It is unbridled social dumping, out-and-out free market ideology. They take who they want, do with them what they want, with no rules," said Franck Gonsse, secretary-general of dock workers in Dunkirk, who joined the strike.