Union wins jobs for Marseille Port workers at new gas terminal

As a result of Gaz de France’s (GDF) determination to exclusively control the loading and unloading of gas from tankers that will dock at the future gas terminal near Marseille, the General Confederation of Labour at the Marseille Port Authority (PAM) called workers to strike. After 18 days of strike action, the trade union won its case. In early 2008, GDF will reserve five full-time jobs for PAM employees at the new terminal to work alongside its own employees.

On 14 March 2007, workers at the Marseille Port Authority (Port autonome de Marseille, PAM) – a commercial and industrial state-run body (établissement public à caractère industriel et commercial, EPIC) – went on strike. The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT), which is the largest representative trade union of PAM employees, called on workers to take part in a renewable 24-hour work stoppage in the oil terminals. It also called on PAM employees in the other terminals to refrain from working overtime and to refuse to do exceptional work at night or on Sundays. The call for strike action came about as the result of a disagreement between the CGT and the gas production and distribution company, Gaz de France (GDF), which wanted to exclusively control the loading and unloading of gas from tankers that will dock at the future Fos-sur-Mer gas terminal near Marseille in the south of France. At present, GDF is still awaiting the completion of its merger with the Suez energy group (FR0603039I).

Cause of strike action

CGT wants PAM port workers to be involved in the loading and unloading of gas tankers at GDF’s new Fos-sur-Mer gas terminal, which is due to begin operations in the spring of 2008. According to the trade union, this is the only arrangement which makes it possible to apply the ‘principle of reserved public intervention’. This rule, which gives priority to employing staff with a particular employment status in certain areas of the shipping industry, was originally made for defence purposes and maintained for health and safety reasons.

GDF, in turn, raised the issue of safety in the dispute. As liquified gas is unloaded at a temperature of -160 degrees centigrade, the company only wants to employ its own qualified staff for loading and unloading tankers. GDF’s workers already have special training and have been carrying out this function at the company’s existing gas terminal at Fos-sur-Mer for 35 years.

In spite of several discussion attempts, negotiations broke down, with each side sticking to its position. As a result, two draft agreements were rejected by the parties.

PAM is the biggest French and Mediterranean port and the fourth biggest European port in terms of total volume of traffic with about 100 million tons a year. The port authority employs about 1,500 workers and provides up to 40,000 local jobs directly or indirectly. After 18 days of strike action and entrenchment, some 63 ships were stranded outside Fos-sur-Mer waiting to be unloaded. As a result, the oil industry feared for supplies to six French and two European refineries.

Following the breakdown in negotiations, CGT’s national leadership appealed to Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, who, in the end, was forced to get involved in the dispute, since it was directly threatening 40% of the national oil production.

Agreement reached

On 31 March 2007, after two days of negotiations, the parties involved reached an agreement to end the dispute, and PAM employees unanimously approved the agreement, which provides for:

• the employment of five full-time PAM employees, under GDF responsibility, at the future GDF gas terminal at Fos-sur-Mer;

• negotiations by PAM and the trade unions in relation to a ‘charter concerning port employment’.

After the strike action, which represented the longest dispute at PAM since 1993, reform measures were agreed leading to:

• dockers being directly employed by stevedoring companies and under their orders;

• crane operators, who load and unload ships, remaining employees of the port authorities.

CGT won the fight for PAM employees to work alongside GDF staff in the loading and unloading of tankers at the future gas terminal at Fos-sur-Mer.

Reaction of social partners

The President of the Marseille Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Chambre de commerce et d’industrie Marseille Provence, CCIMP), Jacques Pfister, who is also a member of PAM’s board of directors, was concerned about the dispute, because the port’s future depends on contact with major clients, who expect viability, continuity and security from the port authority. PAM is the world’s third biggest port dealing with oil products, after Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Houston in Texas in the USA, and invests €100 million a year. The President of the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF), Laurence Parisot, called for the ‘privatisation of port structures’ and criticised the agreement whereby ‘the state jeopardised the port’s future in order to win short-term social peace’.

The Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (Fédération Chimie Énergie, FCE), affiliated to the French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT), criticised the conditions in which the dispute ended, considering that ‘the government dispossessed GDF of the control over its industrial tool’. The Mining and Energy Workers’ Federation (Fédération Nationale des Mines et de l’Énergie, FNME), affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour – Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail – Force ouvrière, CGT-FO), thought that the agreement was not in line with GDF’s status and deplored that ‘a union demand pushed GDF into outsourcing’ work.

Benoît Robin, Institute for Economic and Social Research (IRES)