Greek dockworkers act to save their jobs
Dockworkers at Piraeus, the main Greek port, have taken firm action to defend their jobs. In just the last two weeks they have organised five days of strike action in protest at the multiple and varied attacks on them, in particular since the Minister for Shipping blocked the collective agreement reached between the workers and the Port Authority.
The Piraeus dockworkers union, a member of the International Dockworkers’ Council (IDC), has denounced the double threat to their future: on the one hand, the text of the European Directive, which is still under discussion in Brussels and which aims to deregulate dock work; and on the other, the attitude adopted by Kostas Karamanlis’ conservative government, clearly demonstrated in their undermining of any agreement with workers and their attempt to completely privatise the labour management.
The dockworkers had actually reached an initial agreement with the Port Authority, an agreement which is now in jeopardy, after the personal intervention of the Shipping Minister, Manolis Kefalogiannis. The aim of this interruption is the complete privatisation of the port and the slashing of dockworkers’ employment rights. Among the most serious attacks are the threat to eliminate permanent jobs and the introduction of work flexibility through the arbitrary extension of shift work. This would lead to the systematic laying off of 1, 600 temporary workers, who would be replaced every 8 months, with the sole objective of reducing labour costs. It is a measure that goes against all common sense, as no-one could guarantee a professional, quality port service, and which has been overwhelmingly rejected by Greek workers and the IDC.
The workers have already adopted various protest measures, such as an overtime ban, a sit-in at the Port Authority offices and even five days of strikes, which paralysed the port on the 9th and 10th of June and the following week on the 16th, 17th and 18th. The dockworkers are demanding that the Shipping Minister support the joint agreement reached between the union and the Port Authority and withdraw his attempt to renegotiate the agreement while imposing his conditions. Dockworkers cannot be considered temporary workers, as the Greek government intends; rather, they are, to all effects, permanent workers. This has been recognised by the Piraeus Port Authority and should be thus stipulated in the joint agreement.
The Greek dockworkers’ struggle is also part of the common front that all IDC-affiliated ports have established against the European Directive. On the 14th June, more than 90 European ports stopped work for 3 hours in protest over a Directive that is being drawn up with no regard to their proposals and which intends to eliminate the profession of dockworkers. The establishment of “self-assistance”, the possibility of ship-owners and dock companies operating without professional dockworkers, is in direct conflict with workers’ interests and absurdly risks the successful running of the European dock industry.
