Dockers on strike at APM Terminals Zeebrugge

[frederik]

60 dockers are on strike at the APM Terminal in Zeebrugge (Belgium) after a foreman was discharged last week. The reason the foreman is discharged is at this time unknown.
Three vessels are at the moment berhted in Zeebrugge, from one of the vessels several cargodecks are removed to prevent that the ship can leave the port. Three other vessels are expected to call Zeebrugge. There is a chance one of the vessels will be diverted to Antwerp, but the dockers in Antwerp have claimed not to handle the ship.

greetz,

frederik

Proud to be a Belgian docker!!

[Tomas]

Cool! Dont give up!

Best regards Tomas sandefjord Norway

[CedricH]

Hi,

Any idea of when they might start working again?

Regards
Cedric

[frederik]

Hi,

There was a new meeting between the dockers and the terminal management today at 18h00 local time. There is 1 vessel (Maersk Driscoll) waiting at the Westhinder anchorage to call Zeebrugge. Other vessels will be diverted.

greetz,

frederik

[frederik]

Hi,

The strike is over. There was a new meeting yesterday and as result a second foreman is also discharged and a third is suspended for 2 weeks. The dockers started working at 06h00 local this morning.

greetz,

frederik

[CedricH]

Hi,

thanks for the information.
The company bosses were probably in a rush to get the men working again  :-D  I expect that they have lost quite a lot of money during the strike.

Why was the first man actually discharged?

Regards
Cedric