PARIS (Reuters) – An unexpected strike by French workers on the undersea Eurotunnel between Britain and continental Europe disrupted train services across the English Channel on Thursday, threatening Christmas holiday plans for many passengers.
“As a result of today’s strike call by representatives of the French Eurotunnel staff unions, our terminals in France and the UK have been completely cut off from service and closed,” said a spokesman for Gedling, the company that manages the Eurotunnel tunnel. An email report.
The company said unions had rejected a 1,000 euro ($1,097.60) bonus payment announced by management and wanted to triple that amount.
Union officials of the company could not immediately be reached.
Train operator Eurostar said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “If possible, we recommend postponing your journey until tomorrow.”
On its travel update page, Eurostar said train services to and from London had been suspended.
Several unverified social media posts from people trying to get to London or Paris for Christmas said they were stuck on trains or stations. Some cited that trains may have returned to their departure stations.
(Reporting by Piotr Lipinski and Sudip Khar-Gupta)
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