Onderwerp: Action
Embargo until 07.00 houre 2 september 1997
Amsterdam, 1 september 1997
It has now been over 23 months since five hundred Liverpool dockers were fired, because the bosses said that these hardworking men are too expensive.
As far as it concerns the bosses, it's far more easy to hire casuals, who do our harbour work for low wages and in very bad working conditions. Harbour work is very specialised work and requires training. Dockers are trained and also know how to handle safety procedures; casuals have to be told, they are playing with their lives.
Casuals don't realise that the bosses are using them as slaves and that when they are totally used up, the bosses will just throw them away.
Tomorrow, on September 2, 1997 the Arbeidspool (the harbour labour pool) will be officially declared bankrupt and 315 dockers will be sacked. So now we are the next victims (after our Liverpool comrades) of casualisation.
Tomorrow, on September 2, 1997 at 08:00 a.m., we will go on strike, we will occupy Amsterdam highways, and then we will go to the town hall and demonstrate.
We, the Amsterdam dockers, are trying everything to get our colleagues in Rotterdam to support us, and we will try to convince them of the great importance of what is now at stake.
Only when we collectively fight the dragon of casualisation on an international level will we be successful in striking this monster down.
The Amsterdam Dockers.
