Europe’s 3-Day Strike Window: How LSPs Should Handle the 11–13 December Disruptions

Between 11 and 13 December 2025, Europe is entering a tightly packed strike window:

11 December – Portugal: first nationwide general strike in 12 years, led by CGTP and UGT, in protest at proposed labour law reforms.
12 December – Italy: nationwide general strike called by CGIL, with rail unions planning to stop services from 00:01–21:00.
12–13 December – Portugal: port administration strikes across all mainland ports, adding a maritime layer on top of inland disruption.

All of this is happening just weeks after a three-day national strike in Belgium that left dozens of vessels queued off Antwerp, Zeebrugge, and Ghent and pushed yard utilisation higher than normal.

This post focuses on what LSP leaders should do now—not in theory—to protect customers and networks.

1. What’s Actually Happening Between 11–13 December?

Portugal – 11 December: Nationwide General Strike

Portugal’s two main union confederations, CGTP and UGT, have called a 24-hour general strike for 11 December over the government’s draft labour reforms.

Expected effects include:

Reduced or heavily disrupted urban transport (metro, tram, bus) in Lisbon, Porto and other cities.
Rail services operating at minimum guaranteed levels only.
Flight cancellations and delays at Portuguese airports as aviation workers join the action.
Wider disruption across schools and public services.

For logistics, the main impact on 11 December is access to infrastructure, not the ports themselves: getting trucks, staff, and cargo to/from ports and terminals will be harder and slower than usual.

Portugal – 12–13 December: Port Administration Strikes

From 00:00 on 12 December to 24:00 on 13 December, the National Union of Port Administration Workers (SNTAP) has called 24-hour stoppages at all mainland ports, including:

Douro/Leixões and Viana do Castelo
Aveiro
Figueira da Foz
Lisbon
Setúbal
Sines (including CLT liquid bulk terminal, with minimum services for essential fuels)
Algarve terminals

Earlier strike days through late November and early December have already shown what to expect:

Vessel operations delayed or rescheduled at short notice.
Administrative processes (documentation, authorisations, scheduling) slowed by reduced staffing.
Some calls cancelled or shifted to alternative dates or ports.

SNTAP has indicated it does not expect most members to participate in the 11 December general strike, focusing instead on the 12–13 December port actions. That means port disruption will peak just as inland access starts to normalise.

Italy – 12 December: Nationwide General Strike and Rail Disruption

On 12 December, Italy’s largest union confederation, CGIL, is leading a nationwide general strike across both public and private sectors in protest at the 2026 budget.

Key points for logistics:

Rail unions plan to stop services from 00:01 to 21:00, with only legally required “fasce di garanzia” windows operating limited services (for example 06:00–09:00 and 18:00–21:00 on certain regional networks).
Expect significantly reduced passenger and freight rail capacity on the main inland corridors serving ports such as Genoa, La Spezia, Trieste, Naples, and Salerno.
Urban transport in major cities (metro, bus, tram) will see sharp reductions outside protected time bands.
Road freight will be operational, but with higher congestion and delays near key hubs and city centres.

For intermodal supply chains, 12 December is a high-risk day for missed rail connections, longer truck turnarounds, and delayed inland moves.

Belgium – Recent Strike Aftermath

In late November, Belgium’s national strike shut down or restricted pilotage and traffic control across Flemish ports.

Reports from the strike’s peak showed over 60 vessels unable to enter or leave Antwerp, Zeebrugge, and Ghent at one point.
Port authorities have since warned of ongoing congestion and elevated yard utilisation as they work through backlog.

By mid-December, operations are largely restored, but the system remains less resilient than usual. Any new shock in nearby gateways can ripple into routing decisions that touch Belgium.

2. Where LSPs Are Most Exposed

Instead of treating this as a generic “Europe strikes” story, it helps to be specific about exposure.

High-Risk Corridors (11–13 December)

Portugal – Inland legs to/from ports
- 11 December: road access complicated by reduced public transport and potential airport disruption.
- 12–13 December: port administration strikes slow or halt vessel operations and related processes.
Italy – Rail-dependent inland connections
- 12 December: full-day rail stoppage with only minimum services; intermodal connections from inland hubs to ports are at risk.
- Feeder services, pre- and on-carriage by rail may miss cut-offs or be cancelled.
North Europe – Belgium’s recovery period
- Strikes are over, but queues and high yard utilisation may still add a day or two of uncertainty to schedules via Antwerp/Zeebrugge/Ghent.

Shipment Types at Greatest Risk

Tight-window deliveries (promotional, seasonal, or contractual commitments).
Time-sensitive or high-value cargo where delay penalties are significant.
Complex routings that already rely on multiple legs and modes (rail + road + feeder).
Shipments using Portuguese ports as hubs for Iberia and hinterland distribution.

3. A 48–72 Hour Playbook for LSP Leaders

To make this useful operationally, think in terms of the next three days rather than general principles.

Step 1 – Stabilise What’s Already in Motion

Identify all active and planned shipments touching:
- Portuguese ports or inland nodes between 11–13 December.
- Italian rail networks and key ports on 12 December.
- Belgian ports where residual congestion is still being cleared.
Flag shipments with:
- Fixed delivery deadlines.
- Temperature control or shelf-life sensitivity.
- High commercial impact (large orders, key customers).

Create a simple priority list of containers you cannot afford to lose track of.

Step 2 – Communicate Proactively with Customers

Generic “there are strikes” messages are easy to ignore. Make your updates:

Lane-specific – explain clearly:
- Which ports/corridors are affected.
- What type of delay is likely (e.g. “1–3 days on departures from Sines”).
Time-bound – reference the actual strike window (11–13 Dec) so customers can plan.
Option-driven – whenever possible, offer choices:
- “Ship as planned, with an estimated X–Y day delay,” or
- “Reroute via alternative port/rail-road combo,” or
- “Shift departure to the following week to avoid the peak.”

The objective is to get ahead of the phone calls and position yourself as the party that is already managing the risk.

Step 3 – Adjust Routings and Cut-Offs Where You Can

For the next few days, standard routings may not be optimal.

Consider:

Portugal
- Avoid scheduling critical arrivals or departures exactly on 12–13 December where re-timing by a day is possible.
- If alternative Iberian ports are available with spare capacity, evaluate temporary diversions for urgent cargo.
Italy
- Assume that rail-based inland moves on 12 December will be limited or unreliable.
- Where feasible, preload or advance inland moves ahead of the strike day, or delay non-urgent moves to 13 December onwards.
- Prepare for higher demand for trucking capacity on and around the strike date.
Belgium
- Plan for longer dwell and potential schedule variability while backlogs are being cleared.
If your customers can tolerate it, build an extra buffer day into ETA/ETD promises for the coming week.

Step 4 – Tighten Exception Management

During disruptions, the difference between a manageable delay and a serious service failure is often how quickly your team sees the problem.

Practical steps:

Configure event-based alerts (where your systems allow) for:
- Missed vessel departures or arrivals.
- Changes to planned transshipment ports.
- Containers exceeding a dwell-time threshold in impacted gateways.
Assign clear internal ownership:
- One person or small team responsible for monitoring all shipments touching Portugal and Italy during the window.
- Simple escalation rules: when to inform customers, when to escalate to carriers.

If your teams are still manually checking multiple carrier sites, this is exactly the kind of week where a visibility platform earns its keep.

Step 5 – Capture Data for Later

Once you’re through the disruption, the data matters:

Record which carriers, ports, and routings:
- Recovered quickly.
- Faced the longest delays.
- Communicated best (and worst).
Track additional costs:
- Detours, extra trucking, storage, demurrage/detention where applicable.

This information will be valuable when:

Negotiating surcharges and future contracts.
Planning preferred routings for 2026.
Explaining performance to your own customers with objective evidence instead of anecdotes.

4. Where Visibility Platforms Like TRADLINX Fit

A disruption window like 11–13 December exposes the limits of manual tracking.

A visibility platform such as TRADLINX can help forwarders and LSPs by:

Providing real-time container tracking across carriers and trade lanes in a single interface, instead of logging into multiple carrier portals.
Monitoring handling events—gate-in, gate-out, vessel departure/arrival, delivery, empty return—so you know exactly where each box is in the journey.
Triggering event-based alerts when something deviates from plan (rollovers, missed transshipments, unusual dwell), allowing your team to act before customers feel the impact.
Offering white-label tracking portals you can give to key customers, so their teams and end-customers have self-service access to shipment status under your brand.
Integrating shipment data into your ERP, TMS, or CRM via API, so your own systems reflect reality without constant manual updates.

In a normal week, these capabilities reduce manual work and status emails.
In a strike week, they are the difference between reactive firefighting and structured exception management.

5. Turning This Week Into a Playbook

Strikes in Europe, labour disputes in ports, and political protests disrupting inland transport are not one-off events. They are a recurring feature of global trade.

Instead of treating each one as a unique crisis, LSPs can:

Build a standard disruption playbook:
- Identify impacted shipments → Communicate lanes and options → Adjust routing and cut-offs → Tighten alerts → Capture data.
- Use every event, including 11–13 December, to refine that playbook.
- Lean on visibility tools not just for “where is my box?” queries, but as core infrastructure for running the playbook at scale.

You can’t prevent strikes.
But you can make your response so predictable and transparent that customers remember how you handled them, not just how long the delay lasted.