BARGE and lock operator strikes, which began in west and
south Germany, have spread to other parts of the country bringing cargo
movement to a halt on the canal systems, Reuters reports.
Shipping was restricted or blocked on sections of the
Rhine-Herne canal, Danube, Main, Ruhr, Danube-Main connection canal, Neckar,
Dortmund-Ems canal and Wesel-Datteln canal, said the Waterways and Shipping
Administration (WSA).
Lock operators in Lower Saxony, Bremen and Bavaria were
also set to join the strike, said a Ver.di union spokesman, adding that the
work stoppage also involved WSA employees in Baden-Wuerttemberg, which borders
Switzerland, and North Rhine-Westphalia, bordering the Netherlands.
The union wants wage and other guarantees for WSA
employees after the German Transport Ministry said it planned to reform the
agency.
The report quoted a Hamburg Sud agent as saying:
"We're working long, long hours, including weekends, to line up alternate
delivery arrangements."
Said Georg Hoette, president of Bundesverband der
Deutschen Binnenschiffahrt, a German inland navigation industry association:
"The dissatisfaction with the reform that has been discussed for over two
years is now to be carried out on the back of shipping and whole logistics
industry."
Mr Hoette said shipping companies were "massively
angered", especially after flooding in the region last month that
disrupted shipping.
Source : HKSG.
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