Workers at port of Aden strike over new DPW conditions

Workers at the port of Aden have gone on strike in protest over new contracts issued by Dubai Ports World’s (DPW), the port’s new administration, said sources at the workers syndicate on Monday.

More than 90 per cent of the 600 workers at the ports of Caltex and Al Mualla have been on the strike since last Saturday, said workers representative Abdu Rabu Majda.

The strike came about one week after DPW began to operate the port of Aden following an agreement signed last July between the Yemeni government and DPW. 

"The main reason behind the strike was the new contracts, which gave DPW the right to sack any worker. It also put all workers on six month probation," Majda told the Yemen Observer.  

Most of the 600 workers did not agree to the new contracts and went on strike, he said. 

About seven workers chosen to represent their peers in negotiations with DPW and Yemeni authorities were arrested by security forces in Aden the first day of the strike. However Aref Al Muhairi, Director General of DPW, denied any problem at the port, and denied the implementation of new work conditions, saying the strike did not affect work at the port.

He said work stopped only for three hours at the beginning of the strike. "And within 48 hours everything will be as it was, we are operating 45 ports, and we know what we are doing," Al Muhairi told the Yemen Observer. 

"There is nothing new in the contracts, they were under discussions for four months with the Yemeni government," he said.  "For those who do not like to work with us, it's up to them, they can go wherever they like," he added.

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