Hauliers' blockade hits Port of Dublin
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by DecIan Cullen • Angry Irish hauliers brought Dublin Port to a standstill last week as their dispute with the shipping companies over delays and rates blew up into a full-scale blockade.
Picketing of the port began on Wednesday (4 June) in response to Loading delays. The action came in the middle of a long-running and increasingly bitter dispute about rates. Irish Road Haulage Association director-general Chris McCormack says it started as "wildcat" action by hauliers frustrated at rates which have remained unchanged for 12 years.
The IRHA itself is under investigation by the Competition Authority for trying to win rates increases; it employed 36 "independent facilitators" to broker individual agreements between hauliers and shippers.
By Friday (6 June) the mood among the hauliers had hardened and they threatened to escalate their protest to a full-scale blockade. The Competition Authority got a High Court injunction preventing the IRHA and some named hauliers from blockading the port, although the IRHA was already
officially sidelined by legal action from Pandoro.
Nevertheless, with McCormack vowing to back up hauliers "as far as Mountjoy (prison)", a blockade was in place.
By Monday night (9 June) the expected breakthrough had not arrived, and a protest—but not a blockade—continued at the port.
At an IRHA meeting it was revealed that almost all the shipping companies were offering a 5% increase, which seems to imply co-ordinated response to the hauliers. "The Competition Authority could find itself a very busy authority after this dispute," warns the IRHA.