UPDATE 2-French port union calls for weekly strikes

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By Tamora Vidaillet and Valerie Parent

PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - France's port union called on Thursday for 24-hour strikes every week to protest against government plans to privatise the loading activities of state-run ports.

Talks between the union and the government over reforms unveiled in January ended in acrimony this week, with the union accusing the government on Thursday of turning its back on a strategic sector.

The planned reforms of seven of the nation's nine public ports were "entirely ideological and in no case driven by economics and even less so by social aims", the union said in a statement.

"The government is taking the deliberate risk to hand over especially profitable port terminals to private operators and, above all, foreigners," it said.

It would be up to the ports concerned to set the dates of their one-day strikes starting from April 14, one union member said by telephone.

Workers at the seven ports downed tools in March, causing severe disruptions to the unloading and docking of some ships carrying precious commodities including oil and minerals.

Strike action at France's largest oil and gas port of Fos-Lavera near the southern city of Marseille helped push oil futures CLc1 above $102 per barrel although the refining operations of oil giant Total (TOTF.PA) were unaffected.

FURTHER DISRUPTION

The government has come under pressure from shipping industry players to streamline operations at the country's ports and to bring them up to speed with competitors, but has dragged its feet amid fear of strike action.

In 20 years, Marseille, France's largest port, has dropped from first to 11th place in the Mediterranean for container transport, and is still losing market share.

The CGT itself has acknowledged the need to improve the competitiveness of the nation's public ports, but has asked the government for guarantees that staff and public facilities will not be transferred to the private sector.

Government plans to privatise the loading activities of the seven ports would foster monopoly behaviour in the sector and ring the death knell for traditional loading companies in France, the union said.

Ratcheting up pressure on the government, the union said that pending action opposing the reforms would not be confined to strikes at the seven ports.

From April 14, workers from other ports would show their solidarity by refusing to work overtime. They would also implement safety rules by the book and cut three night shifts per week, it said.

Such action could "seriously disrupt port activity," the union member told Reuters.

Around 2,000 employees are affected by the government's reform plans and many are likely to follow the orders of the port union, part of the powerful CGT federation.

(Editing by Chris Johnson)