Bastia: commercial port blocked by sailors, traffic heavily disrupted

He stopped. The port of Bastia (Haute-Corsa) is blocked this Wednesday morning and until further notice by sailors of the French-Italian maritime transport company Corsica Linea, France Bleu RCFM and Corse Matin report. According to Corse Matin, the first unlocking took place around 9 a.m. in order to optimize traffic flow. After 40 minutes, the entrance to the port was blocked again.

“Due to the strike, the commercial port and the Bastia tunnel are closed. Don’t choose the embankment, but choose the city center,” confirmed the Haute-Corsa Prefecture on X (formerly Twitter).

The action is part of a strike movement that began on Monday morning. These employees are particularly opposed to the opening of a new passenger and cargo line between Toulon (Var) and L’Ile-Rousse (Haute Corse) by another shipping company, La Méridionale. “From the very beginning we said that we are here for jobs, for our jobs, for jobs in Corsica and especially for the Corsican population,” explained Dumais Giovanetti, who represents the independent trade union of the merchant marine (SAMM) at France BleuRFCM.

Blocked ships

As a result, “vessels due to dock this morning will not dock because the docks are also blocked,” added Benjami Morati, Corsica Linea state delegate and member of the autonomous seafarers’ union (SAMM), Corse Matin. Likewise, according to a local newspaper, many trucks are unable to enter the port of Bastia, leading to long queues and traffic disruptions in the center of Bastia. The General Assembly was due to decide on the consequences of the move on Wednesday morning, Corse Matin reported.

This strike movement was initiated by a 48-hour strike notice on March 11 and 12, filed in late February over various demands. Among them is the Maritime Public Service Delegation (DSP), which in the period 2023-2029 consists of a “compensation” of about 850 million euros paid by the public authorities of Corsica Línea and La Meridionale.

As part of this DSP, from January 2023 they jointly or individually or coordinately share five routes between the Mediterranean island (ports of Ajaccio, Bastia, Propriano, L’Ile Rousse and Porto-Vecchio) and Marseille. At the end of February, the European Commission announced that it had launched an “in-depth investigation” into the aid to “assess whether the compensation for public services provided to Corsica Linea and La Méridionale for serving Corsica between 2023 and 2030 complies with the requirements of the European Union regulation in matters of public help.

Brussels wants in particular to check “whether the inclusion of towed goods and drivers in contracts is justified by the need for a public service, taking into account the commercial supply already existing on the market” from the neighboring port of Toulon. This case is the case of the French-Italian company Corsica Ferries, a leader in passenger transport between Corsica and the continent, which unsuccessfully challenged the new DSP in the French administrative courts.