NEITHER SIDE OPTIMISTIC ON ROTTERDAM PORT ISSUES

  Employers and the port union, FNV, are
  to meet again this afternoon to attempt a settlement of the
  six-week-old dispute in Rotterdam's general cargo sector, but
  neither side is optimistic, spokesmen for both sides told
  Reuters.
      Little progress was made in last night's three hours of
  talks, with both sides largely reiterating their positions.
      "There is still a very large gap between the employers and
  the FNV, and I can't say that we expect to reach any agreement.
  But at least we are still talking," a union spokesman said.
      Employers organization chairman, Jacques Schoufour, accused
  the FNV of intransigence in refusing to alter its stance at all
  over the past two months.
      "The FNV is not serious about our discussions and I am
  really not optimistic about it changing its point of view at
  all."
      "If we find this afternoon that the FNV still refuses to
  accept the necessary redundancies in the general cargo sector,
  then we will break off the talks and the redundancies may begin
  later this month," Schoufour said.
      The series of strikes, which employers say has cost them
  more than seven mln guilders in lost import business in the
  past six weeks, began on January 19 in protest at plans for 800
  redundancies from the sector's 4,000 workforce starting with
  350 this year.
      Late last month Social Affairs minister Louw de Graaf said
  unless the dispute was settled by yesterday he would withdraw
  the sector's 10 mln guilder annual labour subsidy.
      Both sides wrote to the minister yesterday setting out
  their cases, but Schoufour said he did not expect to hear from
  him before Wednesday at the earliest.
  

