In the vicinity of the tunnel under the English Channel, the disruptions caused by the Brexit arrive a little earlier than expected. Since Monday, a quarantine of customs French working in Calais and Dunkirk have begun a strike of zeal “unlimited”, in order to make the “demonstration of what will happen” with the exit of the Uk from the european Union. Three weeks of the scheduled date of the Brexit, the customs officers of the coast are concerned about the continuous fuzziness around the Brexit and want to denounce through this movement, the unpreparedness of the customs service in the event of a divorce without agreement.
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“This is a strike that can last a long time because the agents are just doing their job”, explained the secretary general of Unsa-Douanes, Vincent Thomazo, indicating that the mobilization will continue until certain demands are accepted, such as “the improvement of the purchasing power of customs officials, an increase in staffing and resources for the Brexit”. “We are absolutely not ready” to the exit of the United Kingdom, he warned. On Tuesday, the strike has caused several kilometres of queues of lorries bound for England, upstream of the port of Calais and Eurotunnel, on the A16. “One has the impression that the management has decided to go to the showdown (…) We have no other choice than to continue the movement,” said Tuesday, Philippe Bollengier, regional secretary CGT Customs.
customs officers have decided to carry out an operation of “enhanced control”, in applying to the letter the instructions of the regulation, which shall enter into force upon the exit of the Uk from the Europe of Twenty-Seven. “The agents are making a strict application of the regulations, make the controls more advanced,” reported AFP David-Olivier Caron, general secretary CFDT-Customs, which has called for this movement in conjunction with the CGT and Unsa. In the day, dozens of heavy trucks are and remained motionless for several hours on roads leading to the ports of Calais and Dunkerque, forming several kilometers of traffic jams on the A16 at the entrance of the Eurotunnel. The disturbances were such that the prefecture zonal has decided to set up two storage areas in order to regulate the flow of traffic.
The trade unions call for more resources to the government
The intersyndicale request to be received quickly by the minister of the Action and of the public, Gérald Darmanin. If the government of Édouard Philippe has already announced the recruitment of seven hundred additional officers on the territory, the intersyndicale is estimated that these reinforcements are still not enough. “If Great Britain becomes a third country, there will be controls in more detail. You have the full demo today of what will happen: it is estimated that the additional staff of seven hundred agents to France as a whole are not sufficient”, emphasized Philippe Bollengier of the CGT.
in Addition to the deficit of staff, the inter denounces the lack of training and preparation for new control procedures. Last 22 February, the customs had filed several claims with their regional management, but these were left unanswered. The customs officers of the coast are also asking for a revaluation of the premiums hours of the night, 7 euros gross against 1.80 euros currently, as well as a revaluation of the risk premium and the support of the mutual. “Our administration is asking us to try to streamline the traffic at the expense of our missions to not to block the trade between States. There is a contradiction between what one is normally in charge of implementation and the overall policy conducted at the level of [the] trade”, denounced the unions.
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For his part, the president of the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, said in a statement to “regret the movement of mood of the customs officers based on our port, which disturbs very significantly the traffic channel”. “In any case, we can not consider that their share of dissatisfaction (…) is a prefiguration of the “catastrophic” scenario that these agents seem to be afraid of in the framework of the implementation of the Brexit without agreement”, he continued.
