Gioia Tauro braced for strike
October 30 will see a strike at the Italian port of Gioia Tauro as workers protest against the current management of the port and of the local container terminal. Virtually all the workers under labour unions Filt Cgil, Fit Cisl, Uitrasporti, Ugl Mare and Sul will down tools at Italy’s largest container transhipment port.
Dockers are protesting against several issues including port and bunker taxes and the continued decreasing volume of boxes handled at the Medcenter XContainer Terminal, which is jointly owned by MSC (through the Cyprus-based arm Gitaurco Ltd) and Contship Italia (Eurokai Group).
Last August APM Terminals decided to sell its 33% share in the terminal.
In 2014 the total throughput of the Medcenter Container Terminal was some 2.97m teu but according the labour unions’ data this year volumes handled are showing a 16% decrease.