ISMAILIA: Dubai's port operator DP World shut down its Ain Sokhna port in Egypt for the second day on Monday because of labor strikes that have disrupted shipments, an official at the Red Sea port authority said. Workers have been protesting for three days to press for hardship allowances, wage restructuring and a percentage of the firm's profits they say they are owed since 2008, he said. Talks with the workers brokered by the Red Sea port authority failed after DP world said the workers had no right to demand any such commissions from the firm's profits, even though it was willing to offer hardship allowances. "Our primary concern is the safety of our people. While we do not anticipate much disruption to our business, we hope to resolve the situation as soon as possible and swiftly resume normal operations," a DP World spokesman said. Sokhna, near the southern end of the Suez Canal, is Cairo's main port for cargo from the Far East. The company had also shut the port last September over a similar labor dispute. DP World is considered one of the more profitable assets of debt-laden Dubai World. The port operator is the world's third largest and is 80-percent-owned by the state-linked conglomerate. The firm temporarily suspended terminal operations at its Egyptian facility as a precautionary measure during the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
