GERMAN port employers and the union representing dockworkers have reached an agreement on wage increases, ending a long-running dispute that has heavily disrupted operations at some of the country's busiest container ports.
The Central Association of German Seaport Companies (ZDS) and the United Services Union, known as ver.di, reached a collective bargaining result in their 10th round of negotiations last week. Some 12,000 employees in Germany's North Sea ports will receive significant increases in pay packages.
The deal ends a union campaign that saw a series of 24-hour "warning strikes" by ver.di in June followed by a 48-hour strike in July, shutting down container terminals in Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Wilhelmshaven, reports IHS Media.
But across the North Sea in the UK's busiest container port of Felixstowe there is no resolution in sight as an eight-day strike that?™s becoming an increasingly bitter wage dispute.
Hutchison Ports (UK), the owner of Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company that operates the port, and union Unite have intensified their media battle for the hearts and minds of workers.
Unite has characterised the strike as a fight against corporate greed at a time when dockworkers are being squeezed by runaway inflation that in the UK topped 10 per cent in July, while the port employer says its already well-paid workers have been offered pay increases of up to 9.6 per cent.
What is not under dispute is the disruption being caused by the strike. Felixstowe handles half the 4 million TEU entering and leaving the UK, but with terminals at a standstill, more than 10,000 TEU a day must be diverted to other ports in the UK or Northern Europe, creating significant logistics pain for shippers.
The strike is scheduled to end today (Monday, August 29), and while the widespread disruption will take time to resolve, any extension of the Felixstowe shutdown will begin to affect the seasonal UK supply chains.
"The goods are moving now to be in position for the three traditional peaks in retail sales: Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas," said James Hookham, director of the Global Shippers Forum (GSF). "So a prolonged strike has the potential to disrupt flows of goods to the country's shops and stores at a critical period.
"This is disruption on disruption and will not make inventory management any easier on top of wobbles in consumer demand, rising interest rates making working capital more expensive, and continuing delays and congestion in the Europe trades."
The dispute between Felixstowe and Unite has seen a series of claims and counter claims by both parties all week around company profits, pay levels, and even whether workers want to strike.
Sharon Graham, secretary general of Unite, visited the picket line at Felixstowe on Wednesday, and said in a statement that the port was "the epitome of an economy that doesn't work for workers." She said the union would escalate the dispute unless the wage offer was improved.
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