UPDATE 2-French port union calls for weekly strikes

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By Tamora Vidaillet and Valerie Parent

PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - France's port union called on Thursday for 24-hour strikes every week to protest against government plans to privatise the loading activities of state-run ports.

Talks between the union and the government over reforms unveiled in January ended in acrimony this week, with the union accusing the government on Thursday of turning its back on a strategic sector.

The planned reforms of seven of the nation's nine public ports were "entirely ideological and in no case driven by economics and even less so by social aims", the union said in a statement.

"The government is taking the deliberate risk to hand over especially profitable port terminals to private operators and, above all, foreigners," it said.

It would be up to the ports concerned to set the dates of their one-day strikes starting from April 14, one union member said by telephone.

Workers at the seven ports downed tools in March, causing severe disruptions to the unloading and docking of some ships carrying precious commodities including oil and minerals.

Strike action at France's largest oil and gas port of Fos-Lavera near the southern city of Marseille helped push oil futures CLc1 above $102 per barrel although the refining operations of oil giant Total (TOTF.PA) were unaffected.