THE INTERNATIONAL DOCKWORKERS COUNCIL URGES ALL AFFILIATES TO UNITE IN COMMEMORATING THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WORK

IDC, 27/04/2017. This Monday, May 1st, workers from around the world- from all sectors- will come together to  celebrate International Labor Day. As  dockers, longshoremen, and stevedores we commemorate International Labor Day, or May Day, and  the International Dockworkers Council (IDC) encourages their +100,000 members to participate in joint calls, with one voice,  proclaiming the IDC motto: "We will never again walk alone again.¨

Dock work is fundamental to the functioning of the international economy. More than 80% of foreign trade passes through the world´s ports. As dockworkers, we demand the right to work and demonstrate daily the necessity of our profession. We are an indispensable group that- regardless of where we live- stand united, and this is our greatest strength.

At the end of the nineteenth century, hundreds of workers were punished for seeking a better future for the entire working class. Today, in the XXI century, this fight is in full swing: Dockworkers continue to fight for their rights. We defend our profession, our capacity, and recognition for the contribution we make to society. We make these demands before multinational companies and in front of governments  that often attack our jobs in favour of their own interests.

We will not allow it. The thousands of dockworkers around the world are one: Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. We have great challenges for the future: technology must be our ally in the face of the progressive robotization and terminal automation. We must be even more organised and champion safety as a new motto. Only in this way can we face these challenges.

Dockworkers are first class professionals and, above all,  a strong network that supports each other- especially our comrades in Africa and South America. Let us honor our motto more and more: We will never walk alone again! The labor struggle in any port of the world is the struggle of all. 

Stevedores and Bic Graphic, present in the May 1 busiest of the last years
The success of this demonstration of Workers' Day in Tarragona is attributed, in part, to the various labor disputes that have opened in the province in recent months

The Port of Tarragona stevedores collective and employees in the struggle of Bic Graphic have become today some of the main protagonists of the demonstration of May Day in the city, the busiest that is remembered in recent years.

The mobilization convened at 12.00 hours by the two major unions, CCOO and UGT, has managed to bring together some 1,500 people this 2017 and has focused on claiming that the economic recovery also reaches workers and impacts on their wages, which are still At levels well below pre-crisis levels. In the opening banner of the tour you could read: "Defensem l'ocupació, els salaris i les pensions"

The success of the Workers' Day demonstration in Tarragona is attributed, in part, to the various labor conflicts that have opened up in the province in recent months, such as the dismissals in Bic Graphic or the danger of deregulation of the sector Of dockers at the state level. Both groups were present at the demonstration with their own banners and in the case of stevedores, with a banner that read "Not a step back", have even flares and have shouted "where are, do not see, the PP thieves "