Ajaccio (AFP) – Corsica Linea boats are blocked in Marseille by strikers leading the consortium that owns the shipping company to stop all activity until Monday to “evaluate” the future of the company, according to unions and management.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 18:08

Striking sailors from the Corsican workers' union (STC) blocked the port of Bastia on Friday, between 8:45 a.m. and mid-afternoon, preventing any departure or arrival of boats.

Tires had been set on fire and a banner reading “jobs in danger” had been attached to the gates at the entrance to the port.

In the middle of the afternoon, "access to the port was unblocked", the Bastia port captaincy confirmed to AFP, allowing a ship from the competing company Corsica Ferries, which operates under the Italian international flag, to dock.

For their part, the sailing staff have been blocking all Corsica Linea ships and a boat from the Méridionale company in the port of Marseille since Wednesday, as part of a strike extended until Saturday morning, the CGT delegate of the company's sailors, Frédéric Alpozzo, told AFP.

Corsica Linea and La Méridionale operate under the French flag of first register and are delegatees of the public maritime transport service of territorial continuity between Marseille and the Corsican ports.

The CGT sailors' union criticizes the management of Corsica Linea for the "ubiquitous choice" of chartering the Massalia boat - owned by La Méridionale (CMA CGM group) - instead of a Corsica Linea ship, on lines linking two Corsican ports (Propriano and Île Rousse) to Marseille, causing, according to the union, the elimination of two crews, or 90 jobs.

Management assures that its “project to reorganize its fleet” does not involve “any elimination of permanent contracts and guarantees 60 to 500 fixed-term contracts during the year.”

The Corsican consortium CM Holding, owner of the Corsica Linea, indicated in a press release its exasperation at "one blockage too many", denouncing "untruths" and announcing "to suspend the entire activity of the company, whatever the outcome of the current strike notices", until Monday, the time to "evaluate the form that their possible future commitment in the Corsica Linea will take."

Stores on the Mediterranean island are supplied mainly by boats from the Corsica Linea and the Méridionale and empty shelves were already present in Ajaccio supermarkets, AFP noted on Friday.

© 2026 AFP

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