Dockworkers outline their Ports Law
and European Directive strategy

IDC
10 May 2005

Spanish dockworkers hold their General Assembly

Coordinadora, the trade union with the greatest representation among Spanish dockworkers, is holding its General Assembly in Málaga on 11 and 12 May. The debate will be focused around two central points - firstly, the negotiation of IV Framework Agreement with the employers and the Government; and secondly, the election of the General Co-ordinator, to take over from Julián Garcia at the head of the trade union. The backdrop will be the last-minute draft European Directive presented by the previous Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, which is a further attempt to deregulate a sector in the middle of growth.

Málaga will be the venue for the 31st General Assembly of Coordinadora, the trade union with a membership of over 80 percent of Spanish dockworkers and the main negotiator with employers and the Government negotiations in the docks sector. Coordinadora, which was established in 1978, is today the benchmark in Spanish port trade unionism, and is one of the unions behind the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), an organisation bringing together 50, 000 dockworkers all over the world and which shares Coordinadora’s philosophy.

The negotiations that have led to the signing of the IV Framework Agreement will play a central role in the Assembly’s debates, as it will be here that the Committee to negotiate the terms of the Agreement with employers and the Government will be chosen. However, the process will be complicated, as after the Negotiation table was established on 8 March, the Government presented a draft Ports Law that the trade unions had not been able to study which also insisted on terms such as “self-handling”, a practice rejected by the workers which would allow shipping companies to dispense with professional dockworkers and operate using ships’ crews. This practice, which has been rejected by all dockworkers’ groups, was the cause of numerous protests two years ago, when the previous Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, wanted to impose it using a European Directive. Its defeat in the Strasbourg Parliament was a severe setback to those interested in deregulating a sector which - the numbers speak for themselves - is in the middle of sustained growth.

Election of the new Co-ordinator

However, a large part of the Assembly will focus on the election of a new General Co-ordinator, to replace Julián Garcia at the head of the trade union after over two decades in the post. Seven candidates are standing in this electoral process, in which all Spanish ports participate on equal terms, in a clear demonstration of the strength of the trade union and its widespread establishment throughout Spain: Ildefonso Garnica (Algeciras), Julio Navarro (Barcelona), Patxi González (Bilbao), Miguel Rodríguez (Las Palmas), José Luis Vidaller (Tarragona), Antolín Goya (Tenerife) and Aurelio Gabardá (Valencia).

The candidate that is elected will face numerous challenges, such as the negotiation of the IV Framework Agreement and the possible application of a European Directive, which is still being framed, and would repeat the same errors as the previous one (lack of dialogue with trade unions, imposition of “self-handling”...) However, what is clear is that the new General Co-ordinator of the trade union will have the unanimous support of all Spanish dockworkers, who are ready to make unity their main weapon of defence.

Julián Garcia is not leaving the frontline of trade union activity, as he will remain at the head of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC), the organisation created in 2000 under the auspices of Coordinadora and which today includes dockworkers from 21 different countries. The exponential growth of the IDC is undoubtedly one of the better known achievements of a trade union which has succeeding in “exporting” its assembly-based and horizontal trade union model to other countries. The Málaga Assembly will endorse this model.