French port group Haropa, which includes leading French facility Le Havre, is to offer container shipping companies loyalty bonuses to encourage them to continue calling at the port despite ongoing industrial action.
Haropa, which groups the River Seine ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris, said that it was offering container shipping companies an “one-off commercial rebate” on their January and February port dues.
“This is a loyalty measure that acknowledges the maintenance of shipping commitments at the beginning of the year despite the disruption,” it said.
In another measure aimed at encouraging shipping companies to keep faith with the port, it said that it would be offering a two-year discount on port dues for operators bringing new services to Le Havre in the course of this year.
Haropa announced the measures, which it says will cost it a total US$3.3 (€3) million, after calling a meeting of its “business club”, which brings together its leading clients and other stakeholders, to take stock of the situation after 14 separate days of strike action since early December.
It said that these “initial measures” had been directed at the container and logistics sectors, which had been most seriously affected by the recent strikes.
Haropa’s announcement came as port workers staged a new 24-hour strike at Le Havre and other leading French ports as part of a national campaign by their union confederation against the French government’s plans to introduce a new “universal” national pensions scheme.
Local media reported that demonstrators blocked traffic on several routes in and around the port of Le Havre this morning, as well as setting tyres alight, creating thick smoke in certain parts of the city.
Demonstrators were also in action on the banks of the River Seine at the port of Rouen, where port workers took part in the national “dead port” operation called for by the ports and docks federation of the CGT union confederation.
Andrew Spurrier
Europe Correspondent
