2008 photo from Le Figaro of a Marseilles crane operator.
The latest battle in the seemingly endless war between French port employers and dockworkers has taken an interesting twist.
Bloomberg News reports a French business lobby has published advertisements suggesting that a crane operator at the Port of Marseilles is the “best job in the world.” The ads are aimed at galvanizing public opposition to a dockworker strike that has halted oil shipments through the port. They’ve already succeeded in getting under the dockworker union’s skin.
Waterfront labor relations in the U.S. are placid compared with France but one has to wonder whether a similar ad could appear in the U.S. if push comes to shove in future contract negotiations. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union on the West Coast and International Longshoremen’s Association on the Atlantic and Gulf are among the best-paid blue-collar workers in the U.S. private sector.