Port strike enters second month

Workers agree to pay hike lower than original 23%.

Media reports said protesting workers at Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., which is owned by billionaire Li Ka-shing, could agree to lower their wage demands but are still demanding a double digit increase. Three rounds of negotiation have so far accomplished nothing.

The striking workers earn HK$55 an hour or less than the HK$60.70 they were paid in 1995. The workers took a pay cut in 2003 during the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak.

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions said some 450 dock workers, mostly crane operators and stevedores, began striking on March 28 to demand a 23% pay increase and better working conditions. The labor contractors employing them offered a 7% hike.

During the strike, dock workers surrounded Li’s 70-story building in Central district after rejecting Li’s pay raise as inadequate amid rising living costs and record home prices.

“We are actually shuttling among various parties with the objective of reconvening the fourth round of negotiating meeting,” said Matthew Cheung, Hong Kong’s labor secretary.

Hutchison Whampoa failed to persuade a Hong Kong court to order the protesting workers to leave his building.