SANTOS - Officials in Latin America’s largest port are bracing again for possible disruptions as dockworkers are calling for a 24-hour strike on Monday.
Longshoremen, who say they are owed backpay after a recent court decision, also are proposing a change in the cost structure of loading and unloading vessels. Under the proposal, instead of a variable amount according to the nature of the cargo and the size of the ship, every vessel would pay a lump sum.
The dockers’ union officially suggested the change to private port representatives. Although the impact on shippers’ labor costs was not immediately clear, the idea is bound to be controversial.
Under a law passed in 1984, the power to appoint casual workers was to have been transferred away from the trade unions. A labor pool known as OGMO was to assume that power in November, but dockworkers struck over the reform, and the union and OGMO reached a compromise.
The latest initiative may be an attempt by longshoremen to regain the upper hand in the dispute.
For now, though, dockworkers are planning to strike on Monday over backpayments dating to 1998 and 1999.
The dockworkers claimed in a lawsuit last year that some of their wages had not been paid in previous years. They won the case, but private port operators appealed. They won again last fall, and they now want to receive their due. Private operators have failed to pay and are unlikely to do so by Monday in order to avoid the strike.
