End strike pragmatically

Strike-hit dock contractor Global Stevedoring Service's overnight announcement to shut down its operation in June heralded a "lose-lose" scenario for the three-week long industrial action in Kwai Chung container terminal.

Owners of the contractor will see a profitable business gone, 170 dock workers including 40 who did not participate in the strike will lose their job, and port operator Hongkong International Terminals (HIT) will lose a helpful arm.

This is understandably the least desired scenario for all stakeholders. Outcomes like this could have been readily avoided should pragmatism and compromise have found their place in the negotiation process.

Pragmatism should have led dock workers to lower their persistent demand for a 20-percent pay raise, which Global Stevedoring Service have called unaffordable and blamed for its decision to cease operation; pragmatism should have guided the contractors into agreeing to more favorable working conditions in exchange for a lower pay rise; and pragmatism should have also prompted HIT to facilitate a compromise between contractors and dock workers by capitalizing on its influence.

With the fate of the other four contractors and the jobs of hundreds of workers still at stake, all parties involved should pick up the lost pragmatism in no time to figure out a quick solution to the current impasse, lest the situation will get worse.

As inflation rises, more and more labor disputes like this are likely to occur in the future. To prevent labor disputes from developing into economic disasters, workers should always be pragmatic and flexible in pursuit of their demands while employers should be more considerate for their workers, given their interdependent relationship.

On the part of the government, specifically the labor department, more communication work needs to be done to nip labor disputes in the bud; once a dispute has emerged, mediation should be prompt to prevent it from developing into a full-blown strike.

But above all, the virtues of reason, restraint, pragmatism and compromise breed the solution to any labor dispute.

The author is a current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 04/19/2013 page1)