Dockers in Hong Kong who have recently returned to work following a long running dispute over pay and working conditions, have been showing their solidarity with locked out colleagues in the US.
Workers at the Port of Vancouver, Washington have now been locked out for over two months by United Grain, owned by Japanese conglomerate Mitsui. Meanwhile a lockout began a week ago in Portland, Oregon where the employer is Columbia Grain owned by a second large Japanese company Marubeni. Both companies are part of a bargaining group pushing ITF-affiliate the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), to accept a substandard agreement for workers in the Pacific Northwest after their existing contract expired last year.
Members of the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD) have held protests outside the offices of Mitsui and Marubeni and sent letters to the management of the companies.
Meanwhile as the dispute involving the Hong Kong dockers came to an end last week when a new pay deal was reached, an ILWU delegation was on the ground in Hong Kong. UHKD is still calling for further negotiation over issues of health and safety and dignity at work.
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