ROTTERDAM GRAIN HANDLERS STAGE LIGHTNING STRIKES Lightning strikes hit the grain sector of the port of Rotterdam today after employers turned down union demands for shorter working hours in a new labour agreement, transport union FNV spokesman Bert Duim said. Around 140 grain handlers stopped work, 125 of them at the two Europoort locations of Graan Elevator Mij (GEM), which handles about 95 pct of grain, oilseeds and derivatives passing through Rotterdam. GEM managing director Pieter van der Vorm said the facilities were 40 pct operational. The employers had invited the unions for talks later today, but details of the labour agreement would not be on the agenda, Van der Vorm said. It is barely one month since the end of an eight-week campaign of lightning strikes against redundancies in Rotterdam's general cargo sector, which stevedoring companies said cost them millions of guilders.