A one-day strike by French Dockers on Tuesday over job cuts interrupted loading at some ports around the country but many including the main grain export hub of Rouen were operating normally, port officials said. Officials said the call by the Dockers' branch of the CGT union for a one-day stoppage would be heeded by some workers at the western port of La Rochelle/La Pallice where only some of the scheduled loadings would take place.
However, at the country's main grain port Rouen all three ships currently loading grain were at privately owned loading bays, where work was continuing normally.
"There are some on strike, but when you look at the situation ship by ship, they are not affected," port spokesman Gerard Cornier told Reuters.
He said two ships, loading 37,500 tonnes of wheat for Yemen and 25,000 tonnes of wheat for Algeria, should leave Rouen today.
Elsewhere, officials said there had been little disruption so far, although at some ports such as Dunkirk, industrial action was due to start on Tuesday evening.
"There is a call for work stoppages but I can't say what impact there is now," said a spokeswoman for the port authority of Marseille.
A spokesman for BP, which operates the largest refinery in the Mediterranean oil hub said he did not expect a huge impact from the strike, given that it was only scheduled to last one day.