Here is the latest news concerning the industrial action by crew members.
Taken from the BF web site
““Suspension of Brittany Ferries’ Services””
Following the series of strikes which has been disrupting our services, our Board has reluctantly taken the decision to tie up the fleet and to cancel all crossings with immediate effect, until further notice. The only route which will be unaffected is the Poole-Cherbourg passenger service which is operated on our behalf by Condor Ferries.
This decision has not been taken lightly, but we cannot subject our passengers to the on-going uncertainty caused by wildcat strikes and cancellation of services at short notice.
We are systematically contacting our passengers by telephone, email, SMS and Twitter but this is placing enormous pressure on our contact centre so our speed of response may not be up to its usual standards.
Because of this indefinite stoppage we are recommending customers to travel to Dover where we currently have special arrangements in place with P&O Ferries and MyFerryLink to accept Brittany Ferries tickets (see below). Unused Brittany Ferries crossings will be refunded.
Brittany Ferries very much regrets the effect the disruption will have on our customers but is hopeful that a resolution will be found soon, as discussions with the unions are on-going and will continue throughout the weekend.
Maybe they are in financial difficulty? Either that or the firm is rich enough to stand the boats indefinitely and are playing the strikers at their own game.
Derf:
Probably don’t want the boats being hi-jacked by strikers or blockaded.
BF have been loosing money over the last 3 years.
After the last round of talks on Friday, the board of BF instructed all the crew members to leave the ships. There is only a small amount on board for security reasons, presumably management.
skids:
Maybe they are in financial difficulty? Either that or the firm is rich enough to stand the boats indefinitely and are playing the strikers at their own game.
According to the local paper “France Ouest” BF lost 70 million Euros over the past two/three years.
They need to reduce their costs by 12 million in the next year. They intend to do this in two ways, firstly saving six million by reducing the amount of crossings on all routes, the one I think that has been hit the hardest is the Caen/Portsmouth route, secondly the other six million will be saved by altering the pay structure, regarding time off, holidays etc, and reducing other expenditure related to running the ships.
After extensive meetings this week-end between the unions and the board, an agreement has been reached and it is hoped that the crossings will resume this week, on Tuesday evening/ Wednesday morning, with a full service running as from the beginning of next week.
I have just been informed that the Cotentin (freight) will NOT be sailing from Poole to Santander on this coming Saturday 29/09/12. Nor it seems will any other Brittany ships be sailing in the next couple of days. According to the French newspapers talks between unions and management have once reached deadlock.
pierrot 14:
secondly the other six million will be saved by altering the pay structure, regarding time off, holidays etc, and reducing other expenditure related to running the ships.
i wonder how much the ceo’s are sacrificing and giving up.
