Demonstration in Calais in support of sailors dismissed by P&O
The rally, at the call of the CGT, meeting on April 19, 2022, in front of the passenger terminal, of CGT and CFDT employees and activists of P&0, which employs some 250 people in Calais, as well as “Solidaire” and “Sud” representatives Rail” from Channel Tunnel staff. They had come to show their support for the 800 British sailors dismissed in mid-March by P&0 across the Channel.
For the CGT, André Haffreingue, a statement “the brutal, savage and despicable methods” of the management of P&O, towards sailors “thrown like fat paper without consultation or prior information from the unions and the staff”. The French sailors of the competing Danish company DFDS “have to worry if ever the P&O has succeeded in its low work operation”, he warned.
If the employees on the French side were not affected by the P&O decision, “it is our working tool that has been removed” with the current suspension of the Calais-Dover link, for his part specified Thorir Thorisson, CFDT delegate.
“Uncertainty”
“There is an uncertainty that sets in […] people are very badly”, while “we are still awaiting the return of the ships for which the British authorities will not give a favorable opinion for the safety tests”, he added. A demonstration was organized simultaneously at the port of Dover by The Calais-Dover link remained suspended without “any indication” of a date to resume, a P&O spokesman said on April 14.
The previous day, a company ship, the ‘Spirit of Britain’, had been detained by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) due to several safety concerns.
Another ship in the P&O fleet is also immobilized by the authorities, while a third is at the dock awaiting an inspection.
P&O Ferries had suspended this connection after the dismissal on March 17 of 800 sailors, which caused a wave of anger in the United Kingdom.