Dockers in violent protests at European parliament

DOCKERS fought with police and smashed windows at the European Parliament building yesterday during a violent protest over a proposal to liberalise port services across the EU.

Strikes and work slowdowns also disrupted cargo handling at several ports as trade unions pressed their opposition to the plan.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to try to keep thousands of protesting dockers away from the EU legislature in Strasbourg.

At least 6,000 workers from all major European ports, including Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg and Marseille, and from as far away as Australia and the United States, took part in the demonstration organised by several trade unions.

At the same time, workers closed down cargo handling in Antwerp in Belgium - Europe's second-biggest port - and strikes affected harbour work in Portugal and Denmark. Dockers in Sweden and in Rotterdam, Europe's biggest port, held stoppages.

But the European Parliament looks set to reject new plans to liberalise cargo handling at EU seaports tomorrow, two years after voting down the previous draft legislation. The bill, tabled by the EU's executive commission, proposes opening cargo handling to competition, ending the situation in many European ports where loading and unloading is run by monopoly handlers.