SeaFrance on the brink

A WORKERS cooperative is the only offer on the table for troubled cross-Channel ferry firm SeaFrance and its future looks gloomy as the proposal is still tens of millions short of the money needed.

Its ferries have been tied up at Calais since the middle of November after a commercial tribunal in Paris rejected rival buy-out plans by the workers' cooperative and a consortium of DFDS Seaways and LD Lines.

DFDS has withdrawn its offer after facing hostility from unions, angry because more than 400 jobs would go in France - but the consortium said in a statement it would "continue to monitor the situation". Last week the CFDT union, the main backers of the cooperative, are said to have boycotted a meeting with DFDS in Paris.

DFDS boss Niels Smedegaard had previously told La Voix du Nord that only his company could save SeaFrance and he dismissed the workers’ co-operative bid as a "mirage".

If the Paris tribunal rejects the workers' offer SeaFrance will close, perhaps as soon as Monday when the tribunal has called a new meeting.

French Transport Minister Thierry Mariani has said: "Frankly, I'm not optimistic."

Union secretary Didier Cappelle said money was coming in. He told La Voix du Nord "Little by little the funding moves on" he said, with €10 million from the regional council, €1m from Calais, plus funds from neighbouring communes and the departmental council it totals about €15m. This is about €40m short of what parent company SNCF says is needed to run SeaFrance each year.

Its four ferries carried 3.5 million passengers a year between Dover and Calais and it employs 850 staff in the UK and France. It went into administration after making €240 million losses last year.

The company says its website www.seafrance.com will be updated with the latest news but passengers can call the helpline on +44 (0) 845 458 0666.