Atlantic rolls back into Liverpool
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• The jobs of hundreds of Merseyside drivers have been saved following the return of a major US container shipper to the port of Liverpool just five weeks after quitting for Thamesport in Kent. Atlantic Container Line pulled out of Liverpool after a longrunning dispute between Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and dock workers (CM 11-17 July). The dispute is still goina.on but the company, which generates 10% of container traffic through the port, has resumed its operations. Many owner-drivers and small hauliers had already been affected by the loss of business and some had carried on working for AU. in Thamesport but were running at a loss because the American firm didn't increase its rates.
The RHA has welcomed ACL's decision, but Dougie Chadwick, a committee member of the Liverpool Ship Owners and Port Users Association, is more cautious. "I'm very pleased and it's good to have them back in Liverpool but I won't get carried away. I'd like to believe it's permanent this time and not a case of here today, gone tomorrow,' he says.