INDEPENDENT CHAIRMAN FOR DUTCH CARGO DISPUTE
The two sides in the Rotterdam port
general cargo dispute have agreed to appoint an independent
chairman, Han Lammers, to preside over future meetings,
employers' spokesman Gerard Zeebregts said.
    Lammers, Queen's Commissioner for the province of
Flevoland, will not act as a mediator but will draw up an
agenda and procedures for meetings between the employers and
unions on a work-practice agreement and proposed redundancies.
    Two months of strikes in the sector began on January 19 in
protest at employers' proposals for 350 redundancies from the
4,000-strong workforce this year.
    The strikes were called off by the main port union FNV on
March 13 following an Amsterdam court's interim injunction
against the redundancies on procedural grounds.
    The court is due to make a final ruling on May 7 but
Zeebregts said he expected the judgment to go against the
employers and they were therefore very likely to restart the
complicated legal redundancy procedures in the near future.
    Meanwhile, the dispute over a new work-practice agreement
in the port's grain sector continued, with 30 maintenance
workers on strike, although loading was not affected, a
spokesman for Graan Elevator Mij, the largest employer in the
sector, said.
    The employers have written to the union asking it to
reconsider its position and a meeting of union members has been
called for tomorrow.
 Reuter
