..including Fraulein Gantry Crane Driver

Whether the workers concerned will achieve their goal remains open to debate. There have been similar problems in Le Havre in conjunction with its new Port 2000 development and the solution arrived at here is a compromise whereby gantry operators will remain on the port authority payroll for three years and then transfer over to become employees of the terminal operating company. The sensitivity of the subject here though, has nevertheless been enough to play a part in slowing the delivery of the second container terminal at Port 2000 until late next year. The first new terminal, for CMA CGM, opened in April.

We particularly like Wolfgang Weskamp’s comment: “The cliche of musclemen dragging sacks weighing a hundredweight and more is no longer true in most container companies.” Quite so and about time too.