Thumbs Down

Whether the workers concerned will achieve their goal remains open to debate. There have been similar problems in Le Havre in conjunction with its new Port 2000 development and the solution arrived at here is a compromise whereby gantry operators will remain on the port authority payroll for three years and then transfer over to become employees of the terminal operating company. The sensitivity of the subject here though, has nevertheless been enough to play a part in slowing the delivery of the second container terminal at Port 2000 until late next year. The first new terminal, for CMA CGM, opened in April.

The “compromise” in Le Havre is not ideal just as the wishes of employees in Marseilles are not founded in the real world.

Understandably, the terminal operators want to be master of their own destinies and possessing their own workforce is integral to this approach. How can a terminal operator properly sign up to a container handling concession when the quayside and other operations are undertaken by workers that are not employed by it even if they are under its operational control?

The fact of the matter is that the system whereby crane drivers are in the employ of port authorities is an outdated one and should be ushered out of the door as new terminal operating concessions come in. The two systems are not compatible and so history tells us from experience around the world. The exodus of port authorities from front line cargo handling operations is plain to see – generally speaking this is the age of the landlord port model. Equally, the march of the private sector into terminal operations has seen terminal operators assume full control of most workforces. There are still outposts where ungainly halfway houses exist – Spain for instance also has some very cumbersome labour arrangements – but the bottom line reality is that there is too much at stake nowadays to let these archaic systems prevail.

Better pain today and gain thereafter on the reform front – history also tells this is the way to achieving greater efficiencies. A big thumbs down, therefore, to halfway houses.