Aqaba terminal strike a cause of alarm for merchants

AMMAN –– Merchants are worried the strike at the Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT) may harm commercial activities in the Kingdom, particularly as demand for goods is set to surge in the coming days, the Amman Chamber of Commerce said Monday. 

ACT employees on Sunday began a strike, demanding that the management increase their salaries, pay them 15 salaries a year and include their parents in their medical insurance, among other demands. 

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, Amman Chamber of Commerce President Issa Murad warned that if the strike continues it will have negative consequences on the domestic market, particularly on food commodities and clothes. 

“If the strike continues it will harm the commercial sector and consumers alike,” Murad said, noting that the delay in clearing goods to the local market will put additional costs on merchants and automatically send prices up. 

He called on the employees to end their strike and resume work, urging ACT to engage in  dialogue with the employees in order to find a solution to the work stoppage. 

Ihab Rawashdeh, head of ACT’s media and public relations department, told The Jordan Times over the phone on Monday that the strikers’ demands — if met — would cost ACT over JD10 million a year.

The list of demands presented by the striking employees includes 21 requests, he added. 

Rawashdeh said once the strike is over, ACT will increase its operational capacities to avoid any backlog of goods in the terminal, adding the company will work with merchants to ensure that goods inflow into the local market goes smoothly. 

He noted that the ACT has contacted shipment companies and urged them to change their delivery schedules to Aqaba Port. 

“For example, shipment firms can amend their schedules to deliver to ports in other countries in the region and delay cargo to Aqaba,” he explained, adding that all ACT employees are on strike, except for security and public safety staff. 

Rawashdeh said operations at ACT are temporarily suspended due to the strike, which he described as illegal.  

ACT said quay and container yard operations are suspended, adding that although the inspection yard was not affected Monday and the clearance process for grounded inspections continued as usual, the number of grounded inspections will be limited on Tuesday if employees are not back to work to remove and replace the containers that have been inspected.

If operations do not resume today, berthing delays caused by the strike will be 36 to 48 hours.

“On that basis, we will have to serve vessels on first-come, first-served basis until the situation is back to normal,” Rawashdeh said.