APM Terminals in Gothenburg Hit by Strike
Image Courtesy: APMTThe Swedish Dockworkers’ Union (Svenska Hamnarbetarförbundet, section 4) launched a 24-hour strike at APM Terminals in Gothenburg on Tuesday morning.
Another 24-hour strike is also planned for Thursday April 28, also commencing at 7am.
The union said that they have resorted to strikes as they were unable to reach an agreement on their demands with the employers after several rounds of talks.
According to APM Terminals, the strike notice concerns “various issues of various managerial ways, in which the union is not satisfied with the employer’s procedures.”
As disclosed, the main requirements include demand for a separate collective agreement and decision on how many persons can participate in a negotiation. They also contain other issues related to job satisfaction at the terminal.
“We respect the union’s role in discussions about salaries, safety, work environment and similar issues, but we find it unreasonable that a local department should be able to announce a strike over e.g. changes in general employee benefits,” Henrik Kristensen, Managing Director APM Terminals Gothenburg said in a statement.
“Not least, the requirement to sign a completely separate collective agreement, competing with the existing contracts that APM Terminals has with the other union counterpart Transportarbetarförbundet, is nothing that the company for formal reasons have possibilities to meet,” he added.
APM Terminals added that it was assessing the impact the strike can have, and how customers can mitigate impact of the strike. Meanwhile, the employers’ organization Ports of Sweden is engaged. The management has also met with the Port of Gothenburg and updated them on the situation.
The strike is not expected to affect other terminals at the Port of Gothenburg.
The company is in the final stages of its upgrade work aimed at creating a new modern terminal at the port. APM Terminals Gothenburg is the largest container terminal in the Nordic region, with over 50 per cent of all container freight to and from Sweden passing through the port.
World Maritime News Staff
