Ivory Coast’s Dockers have suspended a week-long strike while negotiations are held with the government, a union spokesperson said on Monday.
Workers demanding better working conditions and pay blocked access to the two main ports of Abidjan and San Pedro on Friday.
One of the dockers’ demands was for the government to respect a 2019 agreement to pay them three euros ($3.40) per hour, in line with international standards. They currently earn up to one euro per hour.
After the government said it was willing to negotiate, activity at the port returned to normal, said Pierre Guigrehi of the main dockers’ union, FNADCI.
“We have resumed work,” Guigrehi said. “We want to give the negotiations a chance to succeed so we have suspended the strike for the moment.”
The move to block the ports threatened to curb cocoa bean exports from the world’s top producer.
Around 500,000-600,000 tonnes of cocoa beans are expected to be exported by mid-January and a delay in shipments could have had damaging consequences for exporters and their customers, the head of a European cocoa exporting firm warned last week.
