Dockers at the Port of Piraeus in Greece plan to hold two 48 hour strikes in early October to protest the takeover by China’s Cosco Pacific of container operations at Greece’s biggest port at the beginning of the month.
The strikes on Oct. 1 and 2 and Oct. 5 and 6 are aimed at securing changes to Cosco’s 30-year concession to develop and operate two of the port’s three container quays.
Cosco, the world’s fifth largest container terminal operator, submitted a winning bid of around $5 billion for the concession in 2008 and pledged to invest a further $300 million to upgrade facilities.
Docker leaders want to delay the start of the agreement until after Greece’s general election on October 4. The opposition Pasok socialist party, which is expected to win the vote, has said it will re-negotiate the deal with Cosco.
Cosco reportedly will take over management of the container terminal on Oct. 6 instead of Oct. 1 as originally scheduled. The Hong Kong-based company plans to boost Piraeus container capacity to 3.7 million 20-foot equivalent units a year and make it a leading Mediterranean transshipment hub.
The Port of Piraeus Authority has said it cannot change the contract with Cosco, which was approved by the Greek Parliament in March. The Authority is guaranteed annual revenue of over $70 million from the contract.
Cosco’s Piraeus Container Terminal unit recently signed for a $502 million loan from the China Development Bank to fund investment in container facilities.
Dockers staged industrial action, including strikes and bans on overtime and weekend work through 2008 in a vain bid to halt privatization of container handling.
The strikes, combined with declining global trade, shrunk Piraeus container traffic to 431,000 TEUs last year from 1.4 million TEUs in 2007.
The port authority, which is 74 percent state-owned, is investing $236 million to upgrade the third container quay which is scheduled for completion in May 2010.
The strikes on Oct. 1 and 2 and Oct. 5 and 6 are aimed at securing changes to Cosco’s 30-year concession to develop and operate two of the port’s three container quays.
Cosco, the world’s fifth largest container terminal operator, submitted a winning bid of around $5 billion for the concession in 2008 and pledged to invest a further $300 million to upgrade facilities.
Docker leaders want to delay the start of the agreement until after Greece’s general election on October 4. The opposition Pasok socialist party, which is expected to win the vote, has said it will re-negotiate the deal with Cosco.
Cosco reportedly will take over management of the container terminal on Oct. 6 instead of Oct. 1 as originally scheduled. The Hong Kong-based company plans to boost Piraeus container capacity to 3.7 million 20-foot equivalent units a year and make it a leading Mediterranean transshipment hub.
The Port of Piraeus Authority has said it cannot change the contract with Cosco, which was approved by the Greek Parliament in March. The Authority is guaranteed annual revenue of over $70 million from the contract.
Cosco’s Piraeus Container Terminal unit recently signed for a $502 million loan from the China Development Bank to fund investment in container facilities.
Dockers staged industrial action, including strikes and bans on overtime and weekend work through 2008 in a vain bid to halt privatization of container handling.
The strikes, combined with declining global trade, shrunk Piraeus container traffic to 431,000 TEUs last year from 1.4 million TEUs in 2007.
The port authority, which is 74 percent state-owned, is investing $236 million to upgrade the third container quay which is scheduled for completion in May 2010.