The Port of Rotterdam’s dockworkers voted on Monday to support a series of 24-hour strikes at the port in December and January to voice their opposition to potential job cuts which may bring the European’s biggest port to a standstill.
FNV Havens union said that the strikes are aimed at preventing redundancies that are likely to occur once the two fully-automated container terminals at Maasvlakte become fully operational.
According to the union, in the gloomiest scenario up to 700 jobs out of the existing 4,000 could disappear by 2017.
Union head Niek Stam is asking for all employees who were on permanent employment contract in January this year to have a guaranteed job until 2024 in addition to extension of the special policies for older workers.
Talks on dockworkers’ demands with container operators Europe Container Terminals (ECT), APM Terminals and Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) began in April this year, however a solution has not been reached yet.
“The employers have said that they think that demand is not realistic, something of a different era,”Sjaak Poppe, a spokesman for the Port of Rotterdam, is quoted as saying by Reuters, commenting on the talks.
APM Terminals’ Maasvlakte II port opened for business on April 24th and it is the first fully automated facility with zero emissions from cargo handling equipment.
RWG followed a few months later with the official opening of its highly innovative and automated container terminal at Maasvlakte 2 on September 11.
The terminal can handle the newest generation of ultra large container vessels (ULCCs) and the future generations to come.
The oldest in the group, ECT Delta Terminal, which opened in 1993, has fleet of 265 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) which take care of transporting the containers between quay and stack; in this storage area, all the work is carried out by almost 140 Automated Stacking Cranes (ASCs).
World Maritime News Staff
Don't be confused, photos are of a national demonstration of all belgians. Public opinion, try not to get, strike only serves the companies to hurt. Let's hear it, but don't let it get out of hand.
National demonstration so???? You will fall on the same tog... Follow the example of those belgians who all with them didn't stand there and the jaaa dockworkers were some brighter yes but ***** ***it comes to the experience and brotherhood but I hear it all in your speech
Companies hurt hurt governments that are the bosses who determine everything.... So?
Comes to the difference of alone with your claws in your pockets to what happened in that church with throwing a torch or something but don't put it out and you'll understand it might be
Rotterdam Dockworkers Plan Strikes
AMSTERDAM, Nov 24 (Reuters) – Container workers at the Port of Rotterdam have voted to hold a series of 24-hour strikes in December and January in protest at possible job cuts, threatening to freeze the movement of goods through Europe’s largest port.
Niek Stam, leader of the FNV Havens union, said in a statement members of the union had voted in favour of the strikes to back their demand for guarantees of no layoffs for the coming nine years.
Major container employers ECT, APMT and RWG have rejected that demand in contract talks which have been running since April.
“The employers have said that they think that demand is not realistic, something of a different era,” said Sjaak Poppe, a spokesman for the Port of Rotterdam, which is brokering the now-stalled talks and which has been asked by the employers to speak on their behalf.
The source of the conflict is the commissioning of two new highly automated container terminals, expected to lead to the loss of 700 out of 4,000 jobs in container throughput at the port in 2017.
FNV’s strike committee has signalled it will choose three days in December and three in January for strikes.
Whether or not traffic in the port is disrupted will depend on the nature of the strike and how thoroughly union members adhere to the call, Poppe said, adding he expected the first action between Dec. 9 and 11. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jason Neely and David Holmes)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.
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