Travellers braced for rail and ferry strikes

Striking French ferry workers have vowed not to return to work until at least Wednesday, as they entered the fourth day of a dispute that their employer SeaFrance claims has cost the company over a million euros. Meanwhile thousands of rail workers at the French transport company that owns SeaFrance, SNCF, are due to begin a nationwide strike on Tuesday evening.

AFP

SeaFrance workers have been refusing to operate their usual cross-Channel ferry crossings between since Friday. They are demanding the restitution of a 100-euro bonus and an increase in staff numbers.

"The strike will continue until tomorrow, unless there are negotiations and they give us back what they stole from us [the bonus]," said CFDT union secretary Didier Cappelle on Monday.

SeaFrance's management estimates that the strike has cost the company 1.25 million euros in lost earnings, timed as it was to coincide with the busy Easter weekend.

The ferry operator was only able to carry 4,000 of the 58,000 passengers it had been  due to transport between Calais in northern France and Dover in southern England this weekend, which is typically one of its best of the year.

SeaFrance is offering passengers alternative travel either with other ferry companies or via the Channel Tunnel.

Union members will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to extend the strike further.

SeaFrance, a subsidiary of French transport operator SNCF, made losses of 36 million euros in 2009 and another 13 million euros this year so far due to declining freight traffic. In December the company announced plans to cut almost 500 jobs, in the face of strong opposition from unions.

SNCF's railway workers are planning to begin a strike at 8pm on Tuesday, for an initial period of 24 hours that is likely to be extended for several more days. It will be the third time they have suspended work this year.

Two main unions, the CGT and SUD-Rail, are leading the industrial action in protest at job cuts and understaffing. But two smaller unions voted against the strike after negotiations with SNCF management last week.