80 more dockers join strike as fresh talks fail

More than 80 dockers have walked off the job to join the industrial action that enters its 40th day on Monday as the fifth round of talks involving the strikers, a main contractor and the port operator ended without progress.

The new strikers, from contractor Comcheung Human Resources, walked out of the Kwai Tsing container terminals yesterday morning, saying their employer had not fulfilled an earlier promise to increase wages. There are now 530 workers taking part in the strike.

Comcheung docker Wong Lin-yan said 150 dockers from the contractor had initially joined the strike at its start on March 28. But they returned to work the following day after the company promised to raise their pay by almost 20 per cent, in two increments, by the end of next year, he said. "But it was not written in black and white. We fear that this [promise] will not come true and so we decided to join the strike," Wong said. "We make HK$1,315 for a 24-hour shift. It's worse than it was 20 years ago. At that time, we made over HK$1,400 per shift."

A few hours after the Comcheung dockers joined the strike, the contractor posted notices at the terminal that detailed how the pay rise would be carried out.

The contractor divides a 24-hour shift into three sub-shifts, with the first lasting 10 hours, the second six hours, and the third eight hours.

The notices said there would be a 15 per cent rise for the first sub-shift; a 6.5 per cent rise for the second one; and a 6.5 per cent rise for the third. Dockers said that under that proposal, workers who did all three shifts consecutively would only be making 9 per cent more than they were at present.

Wong said he would not return to work as the current offer was far less than the 20 per cent they were seeking. Comcheung had about 180 dockers, he said, and the precise number who had joined the strike was still being determined.