Cross-Channel ferry operator SeaFrance has denied any suggestions that it is connected with the industrial action directed at LD Lines’ customers.
There have been two unsuccessful attempts to disrupt passengers using the LD Lines’ fast ferry Norman Arrow.
Pallets and tyres were set alight as demonstrators blocked the road outside the terminal at Boulogne.
French gendarmes and riot police have been called in to break up the demonstrations, and at least one person was arrested.
LD Lines alleged that the SeaFrance (CFDT) unions had targeted the British-flagged craft.
Managing director Christophe Santoni said it was “totally irresponsible” to claim the British Flag was a Flag of Convenience.
“We are a company that believes in free and unrestricted competition and find the attitude of the SeaFrance unions utterly disgraceful and totally misguided.
“These are the same unions who have been instrumental in creating the dire financial situation over many years that their own company, SeaFrance, finds itself in today, and are now trying to deflect their own created problems as being caused by LD Lines, as the newest operator across the Dover Straits.”
But SeaFrance has distanced itself from the French protests and has accused LD Lines of trying to use them to take commercial advantage.
“SeaFrance totally rejects the attempt by LD Lines to link the company to the private actions of certain CFDT union members,” it said in a later statement.