Striking ferry workers loot bar

Striking French ferry workers have ransacked the bars on the two ships they are occupying while they protest job cuts.

The occupied Rodin as pictured by British Scandinavian chief executive Paul Woodbury

Two My Ferry Link (MFL) ships in Calais, the Rodin and Belioz, have been occupied by the mutinous workers who are upset at the lease of the vessels to a Danish operator which will lead to around 400 job losses.

Graffiti has been daubed on the ships, the emergency slides have been deployed and reports indicate that the strikers have otherwise been passing the time by ransacking the ships’ bars – although whether the duty-free supplies have been broken into yet was not reported.

My Ferry Link was owned by Eurotunnel but after protracted legal battles from competitors who claimed it had too large a share of cross-Channel traffic the decision was taken to sell it off.

The two occupied ships are being leased to Danish company DFDS but only 202 of the current 600 employees will be able to stay on.

Seven-seven British workers have also been laid off.

The manager of the now defunct ferry service, Robin Wilkins, said: “It would have been sensible to realise that putting large numbers of jobs at risk in Calais was going to cause a volatile situation. It is an area with high unemployment.

“Putting 600 jobs at risk without any plan about how the situation will be addressed is asking for trouble.

“We regret any damage done to the vessels and the inconvenience to customers.”