A scheduled strike by rail workers in France is expected to seriously disrupt the movement of ocean containers to and from the country’s leading container ports of Le Havre and Marseilles.

The CGT union called for a 36-hour strike beginning March 11 after President Nicolas Sarkozy singled out freight as one of the key areas for reform at national rail operator SNCF, fuelling fears of several thousand job losses and radical changes in working practices at the money-losing cargo division.

Sarkozy has told the railroad that he wants a reform program to be presented by summer.

The carrier has seen cargo traffic slump by well over 25 percent since 2000 and despite a $3 billion government bailout in 2005, continues to lose business to trucking. It is facing a further loss of cargo, including containers, as foreign railways and private freight companies take advantage of the European Union’s campaign to open up the 27-nation bloc’s rail freight market.

Rail workers staged a week-long strike in November, bringing freight traffic to a halt, in a nationwide protest against plans by Sarkozy to end special pension privileges for public employees.