Launched by the CGT, the “dead ports” day causes major disruptions in several sites this Thursday. The ports of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, but also those of Brest, Le Havre and Calais were stopped 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 that “the port is stopped, 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 blockage was still in progress on Thursday morning. Tanker trucks, which could not access this deposit, which belongs to the State, were parked on the side. Access to the oil depot was blocked by two fiery barriers, preventing trucks from passing.
The objective is to “maintain the pressure on the government and the National Assembly”, explained Wednesday evening Fabien Privé Saint-Lanne, CGT delegate at the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges, where the strike must continue until Friday 1:30 p.m. time at which a new general meeting is to be held.
The situation in Brest, Le Havre, Calais
The port of Brest was also blocked Thursday morning. About fifty strikers, port workers and dockers, were on site. Three containers, installed using carriers, blocked the access route to the port. “There is no entry or exit of goods in the port of Brest today,” said Sébastien Léon, CGT port workers’ union representative. A “dead ports” operation had already been carried out by strikers in Brest last week.
In Le Havre, access to port terminals had been blocked for 6 hours, by trucks, cranes, tire and pallet fires, according to the CGT federation of ports and docks (FNPD). No passenger pick-up or handling operation was planned by port agents and dockers until Friday morning. Not a single oil tanker, not a container ship enters or leaves, the same for ferries and cruise ships.
Also in Calais, the strikers had been blocking the port at the call of the CGT since 10:30 a.m., preventing trucks and private vehicles from accessing the ferries for the United Kingdom, indicated a CGT delegate, Aurélien Delcloy. Trucks were immobilized for several kilometers in relief areas along roads leading to the port.