Here's a recent report from the Port Workers' Union International Committee:
REPORT ON THE SITUATION IN EUROPE
On 25th September, all Swedish Port Workers' Union section a sympathy strike of port workers in Portugal. The action was fairly large media exposure. The hour-long industrial action, coordinated by IDC's Europazon, was successfully carried out in Denmark, France, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, Italy and Greece.
European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF), which belongs to Swedish Transport, expressed support for the campaign. More important and gratifying was that the ETF connected Belgian port workers union BTB in Antwerp even themselves chose to discontinue work between the hours of 08 and 09 on Tuesday morning. Antwerp is one of Europe's largest ports with about 7000 active working port. The Belgian major port is organized along the same principles as the Portuguese ports and also risk ending up under fire when the European Commission and employer interests trying to exploit the economic crisis to dramatically change the balance of power in the ports. We took a step towards building a strong campaign alliance between IDC and Antwerp dockers and ETFs as a whole. It is important to increase the dockworkers striking power against the powerful economic interests that are now attacking our profession.
The past month's developments have also made it clear that powerful forces are determined to try to pursue their agenda of deregulation within the ports. Rhetorical is very contradictory messages from the EU Commission, companies and terminal operators, but beyond the meeting rooms and press conferences, the focus unfortunately the clearer.
The same day as the European solidarity strike was carried out in support of the Portuguese port workers, opened the European Commission's conference on the future of the port industry in Brussels. Our international organization IDC were represented, as well as heavy representatives including shipping, ports and international institutions.
IDC's new Europe-ordinator Anthony Tetard made it clear to the meeting that he, as the voice of 65,000 dockworkers around the world, had a clear message. Dock Workers International's goal is to ensure each port must have a safe working environment and a well-trained hamnarbetarkår to be able to provide high-quality service. A development where European governments and business interests in the slogans of "free competition" seeks to hinder or frustrate the education and safety in ports, will not be accepted. Port workers have always been open to constructive discussions on industry development and rationalization, but we will fight all attempts deprive our profession the status and social rights we have fought for us.
Tetard directed then specifically to developments in Greece and Portugal. He announced that the sympathy strike on 25th september was a first selection that will be followed by escalating international conflict unless the EU and government diktat replaced by dialogue and negotiation with the dockers. For IDC's count gave Tetard the Portuguese government a deadline of October 15 to put in the negotiations with Portugal hamnställdas majority unions. After that conflict, unfortunately having to escalate to make dockworkers voice heard.
European Commission Vice-President Siim Kaallas explained its part, the Commission considers some of the organizational models that are available in the ports - especially the so-called dockers pools - such as competitive barriers for the development and rationalization.
The European Commission has for some time been engaged a professor named Eric Van Hooydonk to lead a survey of how the coordination and efficiency of the ports could look like. Part of Von Hooydonks study has been to send out questionnaires to various organizations in the transport and then compile the responses.
Interest from trade unions to participate in the study so far has been very weak since a large part of the questionnaire touched on work instead of working and training as the involved parties originally agreed. There is a deep-seated distrust of the EU Commission's actual objectives of the ordered examination.
The reports actually presented at the Brussels meeting, however, gave no support to the European Commission's view of the inefficient, closed European ports. Professor Hercules Haralambides from Erasmus University in Rotterdam found that the results regarding both quality and cost efficiency in the ports was satisfactory. The quality of service in the ports is high and dockers costs does not affect ports' competitiveness negatively. This also applies to ports that are organized under just such pool system that the EU Commission is now actively trying to break up, where all trained dockers are gathered in a common organization providing manpower for all terminals and customers in the harbor of specific priority rules.
Between 70 and 90 percent of the port customers who responded to the researchers' surveys, said they were satisfied with the services they buy in ports. The companies surveyed indicated physical factors such as location and infrastructure governing the choice of port operators.
Existing cost-related "problems" were mainly pilot service.
Many players on the Brussels summit, both from politics and from industry, made it clear that they did not want the new EU directives or legislation. Employer Organization FEPORT (FEPORT representing the private employer representatives and ESPO the municipal and state) announced that it would solve this by "social dialogue", a negotiating option means that union representatives and employers' representatives sit down and create a common framework for how it would look like in the ports of Europe.
It became clear at the Brussels conference that the EU Commission officially not going to make a third attempt to introduce a port directive. In his meeting summary explained Matthias Ruete by General for Transport (DG MOVE) that: "It would be wrong to speak of a third port Directive [Port Package 3], as this would give false indications." He also claimed that he agreed with the need to "ensure that skilled workers will remain present in the ports of Europe" and that "self-management [ie such that the crews allowed to manage part or all stevedoring operation at the dock itself] can not be out of the question."
Otherwise the utspelen from just the EU Commission, however, rather vague and open to different interpretations.
The commitments the Commission actually did the Brussels Conference quickly proved to be empty talk. IDC's previous analysis has proved to be correct and it is now clear that the European Commission is trying to push through policy changes like the previous port directives "back door", using different approaches in different Member States.
EU Commission sees practically every port and each terminal as a monopoly, since annealing lines and other customers in the first place is forced to use the terminals' own staff to manage sea and land operations. The ultimate consequences of such a neoliberal doctrine is simply trying to break up these so-called "monopoly" in that frustrate legislation and agreements that define the Mariners job from dockworkers when ships at berth (ILO Convention 137) and prohibits professional certification and training thresholds . In short, the commission wants to eliminate all measures currently prevents lines and other port stakeholders to pick and choose as to who should handle their cargo inside the port area.
EU Commission took place against the alleged "monopoly" in southern Europe is now rapidly more and more distinct. Three recent examples illustrate this development and emphasizes the need for motaktioner from dockers:
Spain:
As early as the 27th of september, the day after the conference on the future of the ports closed in Brussels, the European Commission demanded that Spain would immediately reorganize their ports. The Commission believes that the structure of dockers pools found in the country's largest ports, contrary to the Lisbon Treaty because it is "a competitive barrier to foreign players." Spain's current pool system is supported by both employers and trade unions but has been rejected by the European Commission, such as drives the somewhat absurd line that since the training requirements for port workers in the Spanish ports can not be considered to live up to the intentions of the UN Convention ILO 137, so they should be abolished altogether (!). It now threatens to take Spain to Court for the Spanish major ports not starting extensive reorganization within the next two months. If the Spanish government would lose a legal dispute dockers profession's status would judgment be devastating for port workers in all parts of the Union.
Greece:
IDC believes that the concession contract is established when states and municipalities handed operation of public ports to private operators, must include social commitments regarding the working environment and working conditions. The sale of Greece's largest container terminal in Piraeus to the Chinese company Cosco is today a shocking example for the whole continent. IDC's European koordnator Anthony Tetard mean that the Greek government made possible social dumping in their own ports, which had major consequences for port workers' safety and conditions.
Cosco Terminal, despite Greece's fatal economic crisis, growing rapidly in recent years and now threatens to completely wipe out the publicly-owned container terminal in Piraeus. Cosco currently investing in a new quay and new facilities that will make the terminal to one of the world's ten largest. Coscos business in Greece is short, devastating for port work profession, with unskilled labor, unsafe working conditions, dismissal of staff who are trying to organize in trade unions, non-existent job security and very low wages allows you a variety of staffing firms that continuously compete with each other for jobs within the terminal area. Unfortunately, the model now threatens to spread to a national level, as the crisis-hit Greece are forced to sell out all of its ports.
Coscos social dumping in the port of Piraeus has been notified to the European Commission as combatants against the laws and conventions, but the Commission has now given the green light.
Portugal:
Both the international dockers' unions, IDC Europe and ETFs, are extremely concerned about the situation in Portugal. The so-called troika (EU Commission, IMF and European Central Bank) maintains its demands for deregulation in the ports to showcase new emergency loans to Portugal. The Portuguese Government pliable featured no less than four new draft harbor legislation that among other things would eliminate the distinction between sailors and dockworkers job when vessels at berth and frustrate the professional certification and training requirements for port workers.
This will be short, jeopardizing both dockworkers jobs and working conditions and undermine the role of the professional. The Portuguese port workers continue to struggle and has on several occasions gone out of nationwide strikes to defend their working conditions and their jobs. If they were to lose the battle might example Portugal to be a Trojan horse under the slogan "level playing field" can be used to by political means and through the courts enforce deregulation in several countries in the EU.
Recently, the situation in Portugal has escalated since the government now has reached an agreement with a very small, employer-friendly port workers union organizing fewer than 20% of the dockworkers' union in the country. The settlement, which means that the minority union older members may retain their favorable pension arrangements, designed solely to buy legitimacy for the government's bill to what has unfortunately described as a "yellow" union ". The port workers' majority unions have sharply distanced themselves from the settlement, and declared that it will continue to fight.
New international transactions is a must
Despite many storm clouds over Europe, the situation in Portugal is the most acute, then it is most likely that this process has important spillover effects in the industry as a whole. The new bill is now up to the Portuguese Council of Ministers and we need immediate Transform us to new actions.
IDC estimates that strikes and demonstrations against a bill has more potential to succeed than protests against the already adopted legislation.Therefore, the idea is to rapidly escalate the international collective action vigorously, preferably in cooperation with the ETF. Industrial action is always a risk, and greater or lesser financial hardship, but the option to stand idly by while stevedoring industry and the port work profession is broken in country after country, will in the long run be far more dangerous and economically costly even for dockers northern outpost.
On 23 th October, the IDC-E a new working group meeting in Paris to discuss the next step in solidarity actions in support of the Portuguese port workers. The meeting proposed a second round of international solidarity action (this time two hours of total work stoppage) in support of the Portuguese port workers at the end of november. All affiliates were also ordered to investigate the possibility of scaling up sympathy actions further, either in the form of day-long strike, blockade of ships and goods by road to and from Portuguese ports.
PS. During early summer conducted dockers Älvsborgshamnen in Gothenburg sympathy blockades targeting ships from EDC terminal in British Tilbury. The background to the campaigns was an ongoing conflict between the employer Forth Ports and the union Unite members concerning wages and working hours. Strikes in Tilburys port, pressure from the IDC and its then European coordinator Pete Shaw and Harbour Workers' Union sympathy action forced to end Forth Ports to sit down and negotiate a nöjbar solution with the employees.
Port workers in Tilbury has now applied for entry into the IDC and has asked the union's international representative forward their great gratitude to our colleagues in Sweden.
Posted by Erik Helgeson
http://www.hamn.nu/nyheter/340-utfoerlig-rapport-fran-internationella-kommitten-om-laeget-i-europa.html
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