Workers at the Port of Rotterdam, Europe's largest port, began a 24-hour strike on Thursday afternoon amid mounting concerns that increased automation at the port’s container facilities will result in hundreds of redundancies.
The walkout by workers at ECT Delta Terminal, Uniport and APM terminals began at 14.15 yesterday, after an ultimatum given by dockworkers’ unions to the port authority following the breakdown of talks last month expired.
The unions claim up to 700 jobs at the port could disappear by 2017 due to the construction of new automated terminals such as the Maasvalkte2 development. They are calling on the port to guarantee their jobs until at least 2020.
Container operations came to a complete standstill as the two unions involved, FNV Havens and the CNV, count 3,300 members from a total of 3,600 workers at the port. FNV Havens spokesman Nick Stam said further action – including a 48-hour strike – was likely unless the unions’ demands are met.
Anton Filippo, of logistics company LBP Rotterdam told Fruitnet that the walkout is causing significant disruption.
“It’s a big problem. All operations have completely stopped and we are unable to pick up any containers until this afternoon,” he said. “This is a very busy time of year, with many vessels arriving from South America and South Africa and the strike will cause a backlog in the discharge of future arrivals.”
Filippo said logistics companies had increased the number of trucks dispatched to pick up from the port in the run-up to the strike, causing big queues at container terminals.
Strikes are a rare occurrence in the Netherlands and the port authority told Dutch news agency ANP that it would not be going to court to seek to stop the walkout. “Striking is a right and we would rather put our energy into finding a solution,” a spokesman said.
However, Filippo was pessimistic about the parties reaching a swift resolution to the dispute, branding the unions’ demands “excessive”.
“We don’t expect to see a solution soon and expect this to be the first of several stoppages over the coming weeks,” he said.
The Port of Rotterdam handles around 450m tonnes of freight and cargo each year, carried on some 30,000 seagoing vessels and 110,000 inland vessels which visit the port annually.
