ETF Dockers' Newsletter
23 February
2015
ITALIAN UNIONS SERVE STRIKE NOTICE AS
PORT REFORMS ARE ANNOUNCED
The three ETF
affiliates FILT CGIL, FIT CISL and UILTRASPORTI announced a strike of port
workers, employees of port authorities and workers in technical-nautical
services on 6 March 2015.
The decision
was taken due to the recent developments in Italian ports policy. Measures to
further liberalise the market for port services are to be proposed by the
Ministry for Economic Development in the coming days. At the same time, a
reform of the current port law is being prepared by the Ministry for Transport.
According to what was announced by the Minister for Transport, the reform would
dismantle the pool system in place in some Italian ports, deregulate the
existing rules on the access to the labour market for the sector, and remove
the obligation for employers to apply the national-level collective bargaining
agreement, which covers all workers in the sector, including the employees of
the Port Authorities.
Beside opposing
the measures to be proposed by the government, the three unions jointly condemn
the lack of coordination amongst various Ministries involved as well as the
absence of an open consultation of the trade unions.
Port workers
will stage a 24-hour strike, while workers in technical-nautical services will
stop working for 12 hours.
23 February
2015
ETF AFFILIATES IN BELGIUM AND GERMANY
EXCHANGE ON LABOUR ORGANISATION AND AUTOMATION
On 17 February
2015 Belgian affiliate BTB-ABVV had the opportunity to discuss labour
organisation in the port of Hamburg with the German union ver.di. Issues
related to port automation and its consequences on labour were also dealt with
during the meetings, as the delegation visited the HHLA container terminal.
The exchange
took place on the sidelines of an informal meeting organised at the initiative
of ver.di, attended by unions from several countries as well as by ETF and ITF
officials.
