Seamen lift blockade to end Calais ferry chaos

BY WILL BENNETT

Warnings of further disruption to channel ferry services came yesterday despite the resumption of services between Dover and Calais as strikers lifted the blockade which had brought the French port to a standstill.

The first ferry sailed into Calais at lunchtime and services were gradually brought back to normal during the afternoon. Both P&O Ferries and Stena Sealink, the two main operators, hope to run their usual timetable today.

However, further disruption is likely unless the increasingly bitter dispute between the French seamen's unions and Meridian, a small British cargo ferry operator, is resolved.

Jean-Yves Hamon, the inspector general of public works and transport, who has been appointed by the French government as a mediator, will meet the unions on Monday in an attempt to find a solution.

Yesterday, however, the seamen's unions were pessimistic about his chances of ending the the dispute. Jacques Dumont, an official of the CGT, one of two union federations involved, said: "We don't think that he can solve the problem."

The dispute is over Meridian's employment of mainly Polish crews, who earn less than half of the minimum wage of French seamen.

The company, which operates between the ports of Folkestone and Boulogne, has agreed to replace them with crews from the European Union but wants to pay them at British rates, while the unions insist that they must receive the higher French rate of pay.

At midnight on Wednesday French seamen working for the other cross-channel ferry companies went on strike for 48 hours in support of the unions' position and on Thursday loading ramps at Calais ferry terminal were blocked, halting British services.

Several thousand passengers had to be diverted to Zeebrugge, two hours' drive away in Belgium but by yesterday afternoon cars were again being allowed on ferries in Calais.

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: "The unions have decided to concentrate the dispute at Boulogne, which is where Meridian sailed to, and so have lifted their blockade to Calais."

The strikers held a bizarre meeting in Calais aboard the Fiesta, a stranded Stena Sealink ferry, yesterday morning, and the prevailing feeling was that they should go back to Boulogne where Meridian has offices.

Mr Dumont said: "We apologise to the British people and the British crews for what we have had to do.

"A month ago we began this battle in Boulogne and nobody took any notice. But now, because of the strike, everybody knows what is happening."

About 300 strikers then left the Fiesta, which had been occupied overnight, and drove in a convoy to Boulogne. They heeded pleas from their leaders to avoid provoking the CRS riot police, with whom they had clashed violently the day before.

Instead, they built barricades of wood and tyres and set fire to them, sending big clouds of black smoke billowing through Boulogne. However, they did not seal the port off and it was able to continue operating.

The CRS did not react to the burning barricades and maintained their guard around the deserted Meridian offices with their windows boarded up. The French unions seem resigned to fighting a long battle to get their way.