Irish Ferries Dover Calais fire

[Christmas]

I'm planning a trip from Dover to Calais with the car. I'm aware that one of the three vessels that Irish Ferries operates between the two caught fire last week and it is unclear how long it will be out of action for. I refuse to book with P&O because of their track record with crews, so my question is if the remaining two vessels are reliable enough to book.

If anyone can offer any insight into this operation it would be helpful. I don't want to be sitting for hours on end waiting for one ferry having to cope with the whole situation.

 

[TDMB_1907]

Is using DFDS not an option? Always had a good experience the times I have used them.

 

[gabrielhj07]

The Isle of Innisfree is not in a good way, and she will likely be out of action for a considerable while.

Irish Ferries are still selling sailings on the Innisfree for some reason, but I would expect their other ships to be operating normally, if busier than usual.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I'm planning a trip from Dover to Calais with the car. I'm aware that one of the three vessels that Irish Ferries operates between the two caught fire last week and it is unclear how long it will be out of action for. I refuse to book with P&O because of their track record with crews, so my question is if the remaining two vessels are reliable enough to book.

You might want to alight from the outrage bus, as isn't is the case that the other companies already did, on the quiet, exactly what P&O were decried for doing?

If you want to avoid any company that employs foreign crews on the cheap rather than giving locals in the UK or France jobs at a reasonable wage, your only option is Eurotunnel.

 

[gabrielhj07]

You might want to alight from the outrage bus, as isn't is the case that the other companies already did, on the quiet, exactly what P&O were decried for doing?

Irish Ferries pulled 'the P&O move' back in 2005.

 

[danm14]

Irish Ferries pulled 'the P&O move' back in 2005.

Irish Ferries actually went so far as to hire thugs to hijack the ships to ensure a smooth handover.

Steven Morris on how the crew on an Irish ferry learned they were being fired

A gang of uniformed men burst on to an Irish ferry and announce that they have seized control. A terrorist attack? No - that's how the crew learned they were being fired. Steven Morris on the siege of the Isle of Inishmore.

www.theguardian.com

The operation was organised with military precision. As the two ships neared port, groups of men quietly slipped into the vessels' bathrooms and swapped their civilian clothes for dark uniforms and padded jackets. Back out on deck, they took up their pre-arranged positions. It was coolly announced over the Tannoys that these men in dark uniforms would henceforth be in charge of security on the vessels.

The raid, it turned out, was no act of modern piracy; neither was it a terrorist attack. In was, in fact, a hijack of a very different nature, the latest, extraordinary, chapter in a bitter industrial dispute on the Irish Sea.

The basic facts are these: Irish Ferries, which runs ships between Britain and Ireland, wants rid of 543 of its workers. It wants to replace them with cheaper workers, mainly from eastern Europe, and for pretty obvious reasons, the existing workers, and those concerned with the import of cheap labour from overseas, do not think it is such a great idea. The security guards were smuggled on board the ships to make sure that the handover to the new, cheaper crew went smoothly.

To the best of my knowledge, Stena Line is the only ferry company operating between the UK and Ireland or mainland Europe that hasn't done this.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Do Stena employ local crews, or have they shipped (!) them in from the start?

 

[danm14]

Do Stena employ local crews, or have they shipped (!) them in from the start?

At least on their Irish Sea routes, Stena Line hire local crews. The majority of their ships are flagged in the UK too.

 

[Tetchytyke]

As others have said, Irish Ferries’ behaviour was much worse than P&O, and it was Irish Ferries muscling in on Dover-Calais that really led P&O to do what they did. Irish Ferries weren’t stupid enough to do it so publicly though.

I’m not aware of DFDS behaving so badly, but it may be they just did it quietly.

Modern Stena are better, but in Sea Containers days they were pretty shoddy, Stena Sealink flagged most of their stuff in Nassau.