Lightning strikes hit the grain sectorof the port of Rotterdam today after employers turned down
union demands for shorter working hours in a new labour
agreement, transport union FNV spokesman Bert Duim said.
    Around 140 grain handlers stopped work, 125 of them at the
two Europoort locations of Graan Elevator Mij (GEM), which
handles about 95 pct of grain, oilseeds and derivatives passing
through Rotterdam.
    GEM managing director Pieter van der Vorm said the
facilities were 40 pct operational.
    The employers had invited the unions for talks later today,
but details of the labour agreement would not be on the agenda,
Van der Vorm said.
    It is barely one month since the end of an eight-week
campaign of lightning strikes against redundancies in
Rotterdam's general cargo sector, which stevedoring companies
said cost them millions of guilders.
 REUTER
