A strike Friday was again disrupting oil and gas traffic at France's biggest oil ports of Fos and Lavera, the Marseille port authority said. Fourteen tankers were stuck at docks and 14 more were stranded in the Fos and Lavera harbors after port staff at the terminals walked out early Thursday for 24 hours, the port authority said. The protest, called by the CGT's Federation Nationale des Ports et docks, is the latest in a series of stoppages which have hampered oil, chemical and gas traffic around the Marseille hub, which is home to one-third of France's 1.95 million b/d refining capacity and GDF's 7 billion cu m/year capacity LNG terminal.
Unions are battling government plans to transfer handling operations at France's state-run ports to the private sector.
A government-backed port reform bill carrying the controversial changes is due to go before France's upper house on May 20.
The strikes are set to continue at Fos and Lavera beyond Friday as the union has submitted a strike notice from May 11-22. This did not mean that staff would walk out between those dates but that the union has the right to call strikes then if it chooses to do so, the port said.
Unions are battling government plans to transfer handling operations at France's state-run ports to the private sector.
A government-backed port reform bill carrying the controversial changes is due to go before France's upper house on May 20.
The strikes are set to continue at Fos and Lavera beyond Friday as the union has submitted a strike notice from May 11-22. This did not mean that staff would walk out between those dates but that the union has the right to call strikes then if it chooses to do so, the port said.