ZIM workers escalate strike over job fears after Hapag-Lloyd takeover

Workers at ZIM Integrated Shipping Services stopped all work on Tuesday, stepping up a strike to press for job security guarantees after Germany's Hapag-Lloyd said it would buy the Israeli shipping company for $4.2 billion.

About 800 unionised employees of a total of 1,000 workers at ZIM began the strike on Sunday at its headquarters in Haifa following talk of a planned takeover but there was still some activity at other Israeli seaports.

"Since this morning, we are not allowing any kind of activity," Ziva Lainer Schkolnik, a union leader at ZIM, told Reuters. "We have stopped some vessels at the ports of Ashdod and Haifa and we will not let the company work on those ships until they talk with us and we are convinced they are considering the employees."

She added that already docked ships would not be unloaded. In a related deal to the proposed takeover, Tel Aviv-based private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Fund will acquire a business with 16 vessels carved out from ZIM that secures direct global maritime connections for Israel.