Dockworkers are slowly beginning to catch up on the backlog of containers at the port of Hamilton.

It has taken Stevedoring Services Ltd. more than a month to get a handle on the delays, largely brought about by Hurricane Fabian and made worse by the three-day general by Bermuda Industrial Union personnel.

But president Bruce Lines said although space had been created now at the docks, he was still urging people to collect their cargo from the sheds, where goods had been left for weeks on end.

"We are getting there slowly," he said.

"We are not opening late at night any more and there is enough room to be able to work down here now. But the overtime has stopped because we found that people were only taking about six containers a night. The truck drivers weren't coming to pick up the containers, so there was no point in us being here.

"If we had been busier in the evenings, we may well have continued on."

The Royal Gazette reported previously how Stevedoring was forking out an additional $3,500 a night in overtime three days a week in a bid to catch up and get containers removed off the dock.

But Mr. Lines said with only about six containers being removed in the evenings, it was costing the company more than $500 per removed container.

"Full container wise, we are just about back to normal, but the stripping is still backed up," said Mr. Lines.

"That's where we take the cargo out of the containers and put it in the sheds. Stuff is just languishing down there and I'm begging people to come and take it away."