Hong Kong dockers end strike

Hong Kong dockers ended their 40-day long strike on Monday, with the acceptance of 9.8 percent pay rise by their employers, as local medias report.

After a two-hour negotiation, Ho Wai-hong, representative of the Union of Hong Kong Dockers, announced that the striking workers accepted the offer, drawing the curtain for the entire walkout. About 80 percent of the dockers voted for accepting the offer.

This salary increase will take effect backdated to May 1. This happened after the striking workers voted unanimously against the same offer given by the management two days ago, insisting on a "double digit" pay hike instead.

The strike has been 40 days long, which is by far the longest strike in the city's history.

According to Hong Kong media's reports, Unionists said it will take a few days to liaise on the back-to-work arrangements but everything should return to normal by next week. The contractors promised there would be no retaliation against the strikers.

In a statement sent to the Labor Department of the Hong Kong government, contractors Everbest Port Services, Pui Kee Stevedore, Lem Wing Transportation and Comcheung Human Resources pledged that all dockers would get the 9.8 percent increase in salaries from last Wednesday. They also agreed to spare meal and toilet breaks for dockers, and to improve safety with the help of Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), the port operator which hires the dock work contractors.

The strike's end came two hours after the High Court reiterated the right of the dockers to protest outside the Cheung Kong Center in Central.

According to local media's reports, upon the application for an interim injunction from Turbo Top, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, to bar the dock workers from camping on the pedestrian way outside the Cheung Kong Centre, Mr Justice Godfrey Lam Wan-ho of the Court of First Instance said in his judgment: "There is no suggestion that the activities of the defendants (dockers) are likely to intimidate anyone, to obstruct the approach to or egress from the building or the lot, or to lead to a breach of the peace."

Lam also noticed that "Cheung Kong Center is neither a place where strikers work nor did business", and the location of demonstration "has particular significance to the defendants."

But the court granted limited interlocutory injunction to the plaintiff (Turbo Top), ordering strikers to remove temporary structures to prevent obstruction. Lam said that there will be a speedy trial coming up to give necessary directions.