French port union calls for weekly strikes

France's port union, part of the CGT federationdu travail , on Thursday called for weekly 24-hour strikes to protest government plans to privatize seven of the nine state-run ports, Reuters reports.

The government is taking the deliberate risk to hand over especially profitable port terminals to private operators and, above all, foreigners, a union spokesman is quoted as saying.

The report said about 2,000 employees are affected by the government's reform plans and many are likely to follow the union orders. 

Source: American Shipper