Hong Kong dockworkers are still pushing on with their strike that has lasted almost a week now, fighting for a pay raise in one of the world’s busiest ports. Hundreds of stevedores, dockworkers, and supporters have camped out on the access road to one of the main terminals, slowing down delivery and loading operations so much that dock officials say the strike is costing the terminal operator 5 million Hong Kong dollars (approx. $644,000) per day.
The striking workers have been demanding a 20 percent pay raise, this to make up for all the pay cuts in past years, but the labor that powers the port is controlled by layers of subcontractors, most of whom want to offer only a 5 percent raise to wages. Lee Cheuk-yan, a legislator and union leader, said that this situation with subcontractors is what angers the dockworkers. “When there are layers of companies exploiting the workers, workers get very little,” Lee said. Li Ka-shing, touted to be Asia’s richest person, owns Hutchison International Terminals, the controlling company for the docks. Li’s company has washed off responsibility from the dispute, saying that these striking workers are not Hutchison employees. A statement from the company said that terminal operations are still continuing despite the strike, but truck traffic going in and out of the terminals have been drastically slowed down.
Hong Kong, despite its decline in the past few years, is still one of the world’s busiest ports by sheer container volume – bettered only by Shanghai and Shenzhen, according to World Shipping Council data. As such, any major slowdown of operations in the ports will be sure to affect shipping from major importing locations like Japan and mainland China. With this strike dragging on, shipping companies like Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines are being forced to take precautions, diverting two ships away from Hong Kong to another port. Some European-bound ships eager to meet their delivery schedules are opting to skip Hong Kong and stop instead at nearby ports like Vietnam, where they would unload their Hong Kong cargo, to be transferred another ship to finally reach the embattled port.
Source: Japan Daily Press