Port Strike
There’s been labor problems at the port of Aden for over a year. News Yemen
ADEN, NewsYemen
More than 500 workers in the Aden Containers Terminal (ACT) resumed Sunday a general strike in protest to an agreement signed between the government and the Dubai Ports International Company (DPI) to operate the ACT.
Workers said the agreement does not care about them and their position is not defined. They expressed fears being fired by the DPI administration or being rights-deprived.
Board chairman of the Gulf of Aden Ports Company, key partner of DPI in operating the ACT, Mohammad Eyfan, said it is not the business of the government to solve the workers’ problems anymore after it had handed overt the ACT to DPI. Eyfan described the worker’s strike as “mess” and that DPI is able to dissolve the problem of workers as DPI has experiences in 43 terminals around the world.
Workers suspended the strike on Saturday after the deputy governor of Aden, the Social Affairs and Labor Office in Aden and the office of the General Authority for Aden Free Zones promised them to discuss their requests and find satisfactory solutions.
DPI has not offered any statement on the strike until writing this report.
More, there hasn’t been a lot of coverage.
Yemen Post
As soon DP World, Aden-Dubai Company for Ports Development, announced officially last Thursday taking over management operations in Aden Container Terminal, the containers terminal workers started a comprehensive strike within the terminal premises.The strike comes in protest against what workers called the injustice they will be subject to after DP World assumed management responsibilities containers terminal, stressing they have no idea about their position in the agreement signed between DP World and the state-owned Gulf of Aden Port Corporation.
Sources mentioned that the comprehensive strike started as of last Friday and noted that it will continue until DP World responds to the demands of workers who have been serving there for years.
It was not easy for DP World to take over and administer the terminal as the deal it signed with Gulf of Aden Port Corporation faced a lot of criticism and was completely rejected by parliament.
Similarly, businessman Saleh bin Fareed Al-Sarimah, stakeholder and representative of Gulf and Kuwait Ports Company, challenged the results of bidding and allegedly claimed that there was corruption involved in the deal. Both parliament and Al-Sarimah see that there will be a conflict of interest between Dubai and Aden terminals run by the same company (DP World).
For its part, DP World announced that taking over the management of Aden Containers Terminal will bring the number of terminals it runs to 46 in 26 different countries.
“The agreement includes the lease of both Aden Container Terminal and of nearby Ma’alla Container Terminal, and a commitment by the joint venture to invest around 220 million dollars in further developing the port,” said the company’s release.
Further, the agreement includes as well building a new 400-metre (yard) berth extension to Aden Container Terminal within the next five years. The capacity of the terminal, is now about 700,000 20-feet containers, and is expected to grow to 1.5 million by 2012.
The company, controlled by the Dubai government, is one of the world’s top container port operators.
