Recently, inflation has caused food and energy prices to continue to soar, and wages cannot keep up. This has led to waves of protests and strikes by port terminals, airlines, railways, and highway truck drivers around the world. The political situation in various countries has been unstable and the supply chain has been worsened.
On one side are overcrowded yards and docks, and on the other side are dock, railway, and transportation workers who are on strike to protest wages. Under a double blow, shipping schedules and delivery times may be further delayed.
01 Agents across Bangladesh go on strike
It is reported that Customs Clearance and Freight (C&F) agents across Bangladesh will go on a 48-hour strike from June 28 to achieve their demands, including revision of the License Rules-2020.
The agents also carried out a similar one-day strike on June 7, halting customs clearance and transportation activities at all sea, land and river ports in the country with the same demands, while on June 13 they submitted to the National Tax Commission A letter requesting changes to certain parts of the license and other rules.
02 German port strike
Thousands of workers at several German seaports went on strike, adding to port congestion. The German Seaport Workers Union, which represents about 12,000 workers at the seaports of Emden, Bremerhaven, Bracker, Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg, said that 4,000 workers participated in the demonstration in Hamburg. Operations at all ports are suspended.
Maersk also stated in the notice that it will directly affect its operations in the Port of Bremerhaven, Port of Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven.
Maersk’s latest situation announcement for major ports in Northern Europe states that Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp are all facing continued congestion, which has even reached critical levels. Due to congestion, the voyages on the Asia-Europe AE55 route in weeks 30 and 31 will be adjusted.
03 70,000 workers in Belgium go on strike
It is understood that about 70,000 Belgian workers marched in Brussels, demanding that the government take action to deal with the sharply rising cost of living.
Operations at Belgium’s airports and national transport networks have almost come to a halt due to workers’ strikes, which has also affected port operations at the Port of Antwerp-Brugge, one of Europe’s largest ports.
04 Korean truck drivers strike
An earlier strike occurred in South Korea in June. South Korea’s industry ministry said the eight-day nationwide strike, production losses and delivery delays cost South Korea’s industrial sector more than $1.2 billion.
During the strike, cargo volumes at Busan, South Korea’s busiest container port, plummeted to a quarter of usual levels, while throughput at Incheon Port fell by about 20%.
05 Spanish truck drivers strike
The “Road Transport Defense Platform” of Spanish small and medium-sized transport truck drivers and self-employed transport drivers will hold a general meeting on June 26 to decide whether to continue the strike.
A nationwide strike by small and medium-sized truck drivers in Spain to protest rising oil prices lasted for a month, leading to supply shortages in Spain.
06 British Rail Strike
During the strike by British railway workers, 80% of trains in the UK were suspended. The largest rail strike in 30 years has caused severe disruption to the British rail network and brought most services to a standstill.
Maersk recently announced that it is maintaining close communication with British rail freight operators and hopes to minimize the impact of the strike on Maersk’s inland operations in the UK.
Maersk also reminded customers that there may be a risk of unexpected disruption to British rail transport due to the strike.
07 Canadian railway workers strike
Across the Atlantic, Canada is facing the same situation. According to data released by Statistics Canada, the consumer price index (CPI) in May this year increased by 7.7% compared with the same period last year, setting a new record for inflation growth since January 1983.
However, Canadian labor wages have not increased accordingly, resulting in a significant decline in people’s living standards.
The longer the strike at Canadian National Railway continues, the longer the difficulties and recovery times for already-strained supply chains face.
08 Airline strikes
A wave of airline strikes across Europe is exacerbating Europe’s transport crisis.
According to reports, due to pay disputes, some crew members of Irish low-cost airline operator “Ryanair” in Belgium, Spain and Portugal have begun a three-day strike, and employees in France and Italy later joined.
The British airline easyJet is also facing a wave of strikes. Currently, airports in Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt and Paris are in chaos, and many flights have been canceled. In addition to strikes, severe staffing shortages are also causing headaches for airlines.
London Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol have announced caps on the number of flights. Since salary increases and benefits cannot keep up with inflation, strikes will become a normal problem faced by the European aviation industry in the future.
09 Strikes negatively impact global production and supply chains
In the 1970s, strikes, inflation and energy shortages brought the global economy to its knees.�Crisis.
Today, the world is facing the same problems: high inflation, insufficient energy supply, possible economic recession, declining living standards, and the continued widening of the gap between rich and poor.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed in its latest World Economic Outlook Report the damage caused by long-term supply chain disruptions to the global economy. Shipping problems have contributed to a reduction of 0.5%-1% in global economic growth and an increase in the core inflation rate. About 1%.
The reason is that trade disruptions caused by supply chain problems will lead to price increases for a variety of products, including consumer goods, exacerbating inflation, and causing chain reactions such as lower wages and shrinking demand.
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