2013 Hong Kong dock strike

The 2013 Hong Kong dock strike was a 40-day labour strike at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. It was called by the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD), an affiliate of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) on 28 March 2013, against contracting companies to whom workforce management had been out-sourced by the Hongkong International Terminals Ltd. (HIT), subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT), which is in turn owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (HWL), flagship company of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man. The strike workers demanded better pay and working conditions. The strike ended on 6 May 2013 when the strikers accepted the offer of 9.8% pay rise. It was the longest running industrial action in Hong Kong in years.

Earlier before the strike, the dockers demanded a 12 percent pay hike, plus overtime pay at 1.5 times the basic wage in January 2013. The demand was not fulfilled.

On 28 March, some 450 crane operators and stevedores went on strike inside the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal, for better pay and conditions. They demanded a $1.60 per hour raise. More workers joined the action, but they were forced outside the port after the local court granted HIT a temporary injunction on 1 April banning unionists and their supporters from entering any of the four Kwai Tsing container terminals.

Dockers complained that they have had a minimal rise in income in the last 10 years. Mr Lee, a dock worker for more than 20 years, said there had been two very low adjustments. "Basically, there's no fringe benefits, we only had paid leave in recent years. My monthly income isn't steady. I earn HK$15,000–$16,000 (US$2,000) during the high season, and less than HK$10,000 (US$1,300) for the low season." The workers demanded a 20% pay rise to a daily wage of HK$1,600, equivalent to a monthly salary of HK$24,000 based on 15 working days. Chan Chiu-wai, an organiser of the Confederation of Trade Unions, said that dock workers earned $167 a day for 24 consecutive hours' work, less than they received in 1997. Chan said staff often work shifts of up to 72 consecutive hours during high-season. "For this work, the salary is very low, the working conditions are very poor and the hours are very long, so we are often in the position of being understaffed and the workers have to work many hours overtime," Chan added.

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