THE Cheong Kong Centre applied to the Hong Kong High Court yesterday for an injunction to remove striking dockers encamped outside the building in Central because it is not a party to the dispute between them and their employers, the stevedoring contractors and Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), which pay them.
The month-long strike at HIT's Kwai Chung terminals, which control 70 per cent of the container movement through Hong Kong, continued and the case moved again to the court after winning a modified injunction last week which forbid the strikers from entering the building but allowed them to camp outside.
Talks between the Confederation of Trade Unions and Everbest, conciliated by the Hong Kong Labour Department, broke off without result on Thursday and again the day before with the dockers wanting a 23 per cent raise and management offering five.
On Thursday most of the dockers who were still working at Comcheung Human Resources terminals joined the strike, claiming that the pay rise they were promised did not materialise.
But since then Comcheung posted its offer effective in July of a 15 per cent increase for the first subshift (10 hours) and a 6.5 per cent rise for another two six-and-a-half-hour shifts. But the workers said they were not satisfied, echoing the latest demand of their confreres for a "two digit" increase.
Cheong Kong Centre lawyers said it only holds 2.4 per cent of Hong Kong Port Trust, (HPH) stock, which owns HIT, said the workers would be more appropriately demonstrating at nearby Hutchison House.
Cheong Kong Centre, HPH and HIT are all owned by Hutchison Whampoa, which is headquartered in the building, one of two points where the dockers have deployed, with one group picketing the terminal across the harbour while the other maintains the encampment at the central headquarters of the Hutchison empire.
Cheong Kong Centre lawyers also argued that the signs, showing Hutchison owner Li Ka-shing in a Dracula guise in large cardboard cutouts at the encampment were "defamatory and provocative".
Choeng Kong lawyers also argued that under the contract with the Hong Kong Government, the building management was charged with ensuring public access to the grounds around the building itself, which they could no longer do because of the dockers' encampment.
The dockers marched on to the High Court, but were blocked by police, who ordered them to disperse as it was an illegal assembly, having made no prior arrangements with the police to hold a demonstration there.
But the workers answered that they had not assembled at the point where the police had stopped them, but were on their way to the High Court.
PORTS
03 May 2013 - 21:41
Cheong Kong Centre goes to court to evict dockers, talks break off
THE Cheong Kong Centre applied to the Hong Kong High Court yesterday for an injunction to remove striking dockers encamped outside the building in Central because it is not a party to the dispute
PORTS
03 May 2013 - 21:41
Cheong Kong Centre goes to court to evict dockers, talks break off
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