Fishing crew members and dockworkers occupy the Corpesca installations
The members of the fishing fleet and the dockworkers of Iquique have come together in their fight against Corpesca, the company which controls the Chilean fishing industry and which recently sacked around 200 workers. The workers have occupied the company’s plant and have announced that they will remain there until those dismissed have been reinstated and dialogue with their representatives is re-opened.
Corpesca’s surprising decision directly sabotages the process of dialogue that the workers were trying to begin in order to establish their working conditions. Rolando Andrade, president of the fishermen, has rapidly received the support of the dockworkers, organised in the FETRAPI and part of the International Dockworkers Council (IDC). They all keep watch on shifts to prevent the police from violently evicting them, as they have tried to do on several occasions.
This is not the first time that Corpesca workers have occupied the company’s premises. Last year, 316 sacked crew members had to resort to the same protest measure. On that occasions, the workers asked for observance of their eight-hour rest period between shifts and for cooks and pilots to exclusively do their assigned tasks. The normal situation in the Chilean fishing industry is that workers are required to do tasks other than those for which they were employed, something that is clearly against the law.
The Iquique dockworkers, who have fought for their labour rights on numerous occasions, not only lend their support to the fishing crew members by the presence in the Corpesca installations, but have also begun a boycott of the company’s cargoes with the aim of making it reflect and reinstate the sacked crew members.
The IDC, an organisation which represents more than 50, 000 dockworkers around the world, declares its support for the struggle of the Chilean workers and once again reiterates its belief that the growth of the maritime sector can only be based on a respectful dialogue between companies and workers.
