The port of Rotterdam is bracing for several 24-hour strikes in the next two months as dockworkers protest potential job losses at its new automated container terminals. The FNV union has set a deadline of noon on Wednesday to respond to its ultimatum for job guarantees or face industrial action. The port authority said there have been no new developments since talks between the union and employers, which began in April, broke down in November. The union rejected the employers’ final offer of job security through July 2020 and called for all dockworkers with permanent positions in January 2015 at all container terminals to be guaranteed a job until 2022. The employers say the union’s demand is unrealistic in the current era.
In related news, a week-long labor disruption is wreaking havoc on cargo moving through Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal, a DP World facility at India’s biggest container handler, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, according to trade updates from logistics services providers. Turn times for trucks arriving to load or discharge containers at the private terminal now average more than 30 hours because of the slowdowns, producing long queues outside gates and impacting operations at other terminals in the port complex.