Hundreds of travellers who turned up to board Brittany Ferries’ service to Portsmouth were prevented from reaching the vehicle ramp as police officers were outnumbered by demonstrators.
The previous day, the company’s ship was forced to divert to Cherbourg after the protestors refused to allow passengers to disembark.
The action comes after Condor announced that it had put its crossings to the Breton port – due to operate later this week – under review.
Saint Malo Brittany Ferry port. Violent strike action. Port unprepared. pic.twitter.com/I3SrlrWHBf
— john1proxy (@john1proxy) July 28, 2020
Elwyn Dop, Condor’s operations director, said the company was monitoring developments in St Malo.
‘It is hugely frustrating to discover that our sailings this weekend could be at risk once more after only having operated for the past two weeks,’ Mr Dop said.
‘Should the position not resolve itself over the next couple of days, we may have to cancel so passengers will be offered alternative dates to St Malo or they can travel this week to Portsmouth and reach France via another operator and port which are unaffected by the disruption.
‘We remain absolutely determined to provide travel options for Islanders and also support Jersey’s visitor economy. While we continue to try and find a solution to allow us to sail to St Malo, we are left with no option but to explore the possibility of operating to another French port.’
Problems first arose last month when SMM – a ship-handling company owned by Morvan Fils, which is part of the Condor group, and four other marine businesses – went into liquidation with the loss of 32 jobs.
Following this, employees from SMM marched across the city in protest and vowed to prevent any ship from docking in the port until all staff had their roles reinstated when a new company took over.
Around two weeks later, port authorities and trade unions came to a resolution, enabling the first Condor ferry since lockdown to arrive in St Malo on 17 July – the beginning of the school summer holidays.
According to French newspaper Ouest France, negotiations are continuing between the stevedores’ union – who want all 32 jobs to be reinstated – and the new port handling company – who are supposedly only intending to recruit a total of seven workers.
St Malo ferries expected to run this weekend after interim deal brokered with stevedores – click here.
