French ports return to work

HButler - 

French ports Jan. 25 returned to work after a four-day nationwide strike as dock unions plan their next move in a bitter labor dispute.

The Communist-led Fédération Nationale des Ports et Docks CGT, the largest union on the waterfront, is widely expected to call for further stoppages as the government refuses to bow to its demands for early retirement for several thousand dockworkers.

The government is under pressure to make concessions as port employers are backing the CGT's call for retirement at 58 for dockworkers and other port workers with arduous jobs.

The four-day strike, the latest in a series of stoppages this month, paralyzed cargo handling at leading ports, including Marseille and Le Havre, the country's largest container hub.

As unions discuss further strike action, the International Dock Workers Council, an association formed by organizations of dockworkers, called on its members to refuse to handle ships and cargoes diverted from French ports.

Ocean container carriers have been re-routing containers bound for French ports to foreign ports, notably Rotterdam, Antwerp and Zeebrugge in northwest Europe and Barcelona and Genoa in the Mediterranean.

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