Workers at Europe’s biggest container port, the Port of Rotterdam, organized a strike to take place today, Thursday, around 3 pm CET; the strike is expected to last 24-hours and will cease all container activities, which means that ships will neither be loaded nor unloaded.

Today’s strike stems from employee concerns over the introduction of automated terminals in Maasvlakte 2, including one of APM’s Terminals in Rotterdam. It’s projected that the increased automation would lead to nearly 800 redundancies of the 4,000 jobs in the port over a five-year period.

The port workers’ union, FNV Havens, rejected their employer’s last offer of a job guarantee through July 1, 2020, in a ballot that took place at the end of last week. The union is reportedly seeking an arrangement that guarantees job security until at least 2022 for all employees who had a permanent job on January 1, 2015, at any of the container terminals.

If you have any questions about your particular shipment,please send an email to marketing@anderinger.com. Deringer will continue to monitor and report on the strike situation in Rotterdam.