Rotterdam is bracing for the third strike in six weeks by dockworkers following a call by labor unions for an eight-hour stoppage at the world's biggest port next Tuesday to protest government plans to cut welfare benefits and pensions.

The FNV transport union said it expects up to 2,000 workers will join the stoppages which will also shut down the ports of Amsterdam and Zeeland.

The planned strike in Rotterdam is expected to cause the most disruption at the container handling terminals, including ECT, which handles nearly 70 percent of the port's 8 million TEUs-a-year traffic.

The strike will also affect bulk carriers and freight ferries in Rotterdam and Amsterdam but is not expected to halt work on tankers in Rotterdam, Europe's biggest oil port.

ECT and other stevedores have warned the strike will undermine the port's efforts to tackle growing congestion caused by a surge in trade with China, which has forced shippers and lines to divert traffic to rival ports.

The two previous 24-hour strikes in Rotterdam resulted in a backlog of around 15,000 containers and disrupted the sailing schedules of more than 20 containerships that were forced to sit at anchor 30 miles outside the entrance of the port.

A strike Monday by around 100 "lashers" -- longshoremen who secure containers onboard ship -- halted work at ECT and A.P. Moller-Maersk's APM Terminals. The unions have warned of further stoppages unless the port drops plans to deregulate container lashing which they claim will allow stevedores to hire cheap foreign labor.

Rotterdam dockworkers have warned they will also stage a series of strikes if the European Union revives controversial plans to deregulate port services.


By Bruce Barnard