Poti Port in Georgia paralyzed due to strike
TBILISI. Nov 7 (Interfax) - Poti Port in Georgia, which has worked sporadically in recent weeks due to protests, completely stopped operating on Wednesday, a member of the strike committee, Elgudzha Andguladze, told the press.
The stoppage follows an official written reply from the port's management that refuses to meet the strikers' main demands for higher salaries and better working conditions.
"Currently 100% of the port's production areas have stopped working. This happened after the towing service, without which it is impossible to provide ship access to the port, joined the strikers," Andguladze said, adding that this completely paralyzed all work at the port.
Port administration is misleading people when it announces on TV that the average salary is 900 lari (about $542 at the current exchange rate), as it actually is no more than 500-600 lari, he said.
Protests at Poti Port began on October 10, after which there were two warning strikes. Then, on November 1, an indefinite strike was announced, as a result of which 70% of capacity was blocked and only leased wharves were in operation.
Joseph Crawley, the managing director of APM Terminals-Poti, the company that manages the port, told the press on November 6 that he had quit his post and been replaced by Spin Davidson, who has already arrived in Poti.
"The handover process is underway, and this has nothing to do with the events of the last few days at the port," Crawley said. The move was planned two to three months ago, he said.
The Poti port is the main seaport in Georgia. It is owned by APM Terminals, a subsidiary of Denmark's AP Moller-Maersk, which bought a 80% stake in the Poti Seaport corporation for $80 million in April 2011 from Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA, the UAE) and committed itself to invest $100 million in the port's modernization and development within the next 5 years. RAKIA holds the other 20%. In May 2011, the corporation changed its name to APM Terminals Poti.