PORT MORESBY (The National/PINA) — The strike by Papua New Guinea waterside workers has spread to the ports of Alotau, Madang, Wewak and Rabaul, posing a serious threat to businesses nationwide.
Papua New Guinea Maritime Workers’ Industrial Union members walked off their jobs in Port Moresby and Lae over the weekend. They were joined this week by their colleagues in the other ports.
They are striking for a 40 percent consumer price index adjustment in their salaries. But employers’ federation chief Tau Nana insisted that there would be no negotiations until the workers returned to work. The federation represents the stevedoring companies.
In Port Moresby’s busy Fairfax Harbor, four vessels—an ore carrier from Ok Tedi Mining Ltd., charter vessels Hiri Chief and Lahara Chief and the Lae-bound Niugini Coast-were still anchored.
Union president John Mahuk said the employers’ federation has not responded favorably to its demand for a wage increase.
“Prices of goods and services have increased in shops by 30 to 40 per cent,” he said. Nana blasted the striking waterfront workers, accusing them of adopting “ambush tactics” and holding business houses and other workers, families and children to ransom.
