Origins

1913: foundation of UEMO

Foundation of the Union des Employeurs de Main d’Oeuvre (UEMO – Union of companies employing Labor force in the port and the city of LE HAVRE).  Its main purpose was the collective management of labor force. Then the need to include a wider representation of trades at UEMO lead to the incorporation of shipowners, consignees, forwarders, trading, etc.

1970: UEMO becomes UMEP

Transformation into a “Maritime and Port Union” gathering within half of its executive board stevedore companies employing longshoremen and other companies using the port.

1975: creation of a Federation

The need to increase the number of members in order to reinforce the representativeness of the federation arose.

It was decided during the Extraordinary General Meeting of 5 May 1975 to reinstate labor force employers into their prerogative to manage welfare funds, a prerogative which had been transferred to UMEP by UMEO in 1970 and new statutes were approved for the transformation of UMEP into a federation of professional Unions.

For that purpose, companies were sorted by section, each representing the main activities of the port:

• Maritime section
• Goods section
• Handling section

UMEP activity was defined in 1975 when the new statutes were established

• On a professional level: the objective of the association is to act as an intermediary between the main port activities.
• Its role is to promote business with LE HAVRE port thanks to external actions, published articles, advertising brochures and the monitoring of new traffic in coordination with port authorities and professional associations.

UMEP today

Its founding principle: to create the environment likely to attract and ensure the safe and optimized passage of goods through LE HAVRE.

Three colleges:

• Maritime
• Goods
• Handling

The federation is administered by:

• An Executive Committee
• An executive board composed of three colleges (Maritime, Goods, Handling) – 30 administrators