Port workers vote in favour of strikes

26 Nov 2015 / Rotterdam, Netherlands

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.

The planned strikes are in support of their union’s demand for guarantees of no layoffs for the coming nine years. Container employers have rejected that demand as unrealistic in contract talks which have been running since April and have now reached an impasse.

The commissioning of two new highly-automated container terminals is expected to lead to the loss of 700 out of 4,000 jobs in container throughput at the port in 2017.

The strike committee has indicated that it will choose three days in December and three in January for strikes. The first is expected between 9 and 11 December.

For information about operations in Rotterdam contact GAC Netherlands at [email protected]

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