French dockworkers will stage 24-hour strikes every week starting Monday in a major escalation of protests against government plans to privatize container terminals at seven publicly-owned ports.

France's biggest union, the CGT, called for the rolling stoppages Thursday following the breakdown of talks with Paris earlier in the week over government plans to transfer stevedoring operations in seven ports to private operators.

The strikes, which will hit France's two biggest box hubs, Le Havre and Marseilles, follow a 24-hour stoppage on March 26 after the government refused to water down its privatization program. The other five public ports facing strike action are Dunkirk, Rouen, Nantes-St Nazaire, Bordeaux and Le Rochelle. The CGT increased the pressure on the government by calling on dockworkers at other ports to show solidarity with the strikers by banning overtime. They were also asked to cut three night shifts per week and implement work-to-rule slowdowns.

The union's dock section accused the government of taking a deliberate safety risk by handing over profitable container terminals to private companies. The French state-owned railway, SNCF, last week said it plans to move into stevedoring once the ports are reformed as part of a plan to become one of Europe's biggest logistics operators.

The union is also incensed by the government's proposal to transfer around 2,000 dockworkers currently employed by port authorities on privileged civil servant status, to the private sector.

The government says the reforms are vital to improve the lagging competitiveness of French ports and boost their annual container traffic from 3.6 million TEUs in 2007 to 10 million TEUs by 2015. Transport minister Dominique Bussereau has set an Oct. 31 deadline for the ports to present plans to transfer their cargo terminals to private firms.