Hong Kong: With the strike at Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) now into its second week and ships being turned away from the Special Administrative Region to Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the impasse looks set to escalate. A further 500 workers have said they plan to join the strike.
Labour minister Matthew Cheung said he had met managers at Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust), to which HIT belongs, yesterday. The Labour Department would start mediation in the next two days, he said.
The dockworkers who have paralysed the terminal are pushing for more pay.
The ITF (International Transport Workers' Federation) has spoken out against a temporary injunction that throws aims to throw out striking dockers the terminal.
“The ITF strongly condemns the attempts by HIT, which is owned by Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust), to deprive these workers of their right to strike via an injunction. The company's attempts to intimidate workers by threatening to dismiss strikers as well as its move to replace them with strikebreakers constitute serious violations of international standards. Furthermore, the ITF is calling on HIT to engage in meaningful, open and fair discussions with the workers' union to improve working conditions and ensure parity between the company's outsourced and its directly employed workforce. In addition, the ITF is calling on HIT to take full responsibility for its subcontractors, to put an end to the exploitation of outsourced dockers who are earning less for working longer; and to return to the table to discuss the reinstatement of the hourly overtime rate for contracted dockers,” ITF said in a statement. [04/04/13]
