Spanish
dockers' unions win jobs promise from employers
After
a powerful campaign supported by dockers around the world, Spanish
dockers’ unions have jointly announced a major agreement with ports employers’
organisation ANESCO which has offered job security to all dockers
currently working in labour pools.
30/06/2017
All parties will now move onto negotiations for
the fifth framework agreement – a national-level collective
bargaining agreement – with the aim of improving the competitiveness and
productivity of Spanish ports. Those talks are expected to begin next week.
Following this breakthough the unions have
called off planned strikes in the port companies
that are part of ANESCO and which have decided to engage in meaningful
negotiations. Concerns still remain, however, about the future for
dockworkers in the smaller ports in Spain.
ITF president and chair of the ITF dockers’ section, Paddy Crumlin, commented: “A strong, unified union movement
– very visibly backed by hundreds of ITF dockers’ unions worldwide –
has secured a promise of 100 per cent employment and the commencement of
serious talks designed to keep Spain’s ports safe and prosperous. We
will closely monitor how these negotiations progress and what happens with the
workers in the smaller Spanish ports. Dockworkers in Spain have fought
hard for this progress, but the struggle is not yet over against union-busting.
We will stand with our Spanish comrades until the end.”
Read the joint statement by unions and Anesco (in
Spanish) here:
Cotton
presses transport workers’ concerns at global talks
ITF
general secretary Steve Cotton pledged to achieve tangible gains for transport
workers when he addressed the ILO’s International Labour Conference (ILC) on 9
June.
22/06/2017
He told the conference that the ITF was deeply involved in
the ILC’s critical themes – green jobs, labour migration, fundamental
principles and rights at work, and the transition to peace. He restated the
ITF’s commitment to working with the ILO, highlighting the ground-breaking
Maritime Labour Convention and current efforts to tackle forced labour in
fishing and improve health and safety in docks and road transport.
Mr
Cotton said: “We’ve achieved a lot together, but we must do more.
There are decent work deficits wherever we look…Major companies at the top of supply chains – we call them economic
employers – are allowing labour rights abuses to take place on their watch.
ILO work on decent work in global supply chains is a critical element; we’re
looking for an instrument, and we’re happy that the ILO has set the path for us
to achieve it together.
“We will be back at the ILC next year calling for a strong
ILO Convention on violence against women and men in the world of work. Women
represent a growing percentage of the transport workforce and face significant
gender based stereotyping, discrimination and stigmatisation. This acts as a
further barrier to speaking up on the violence they face at work.”
He
pledged that the ITF’s investment in developing policies on automation,
digitalisation and the future of work would ensure that transport workers’
voices influenced international policy-making.
The ITF and its unions also participated in three ILC
committees – on labour migration, fundamental principles and rights at work,
and the application of standards – where the ITF made interventions in cases
concerning Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, Egypt, Turkey and the United
Kingdom.
You can listen to Steve Cotton’s speech on Radio Labour:
ITF/ETF
dockers take action to back Spanish colleagues
Belgian
dockers from the ITF and ETF-affiliated BTB-ABVV, ACV Transcom and ACLVB unions
are protesting on the dockside in Antwerp now against the arrival of the
world’s second biggest container ship, the Maersk Madrid. They are mobilising
in solidarity with their Spanish colleagues in the FSC-CCOO and FESMC-UGT, who
are taking action against the country’s so-called port reform, after the ship
had diverted from Algeciras and unloaded in Tangier.
09/06/2017
A similar reception from FNV Havens members is ready to
greet the ship at its next scheduled call at Rotterdam on June 11.
ITF president and chair of the ITF dockers’ section, Paddy Crumlin, stated: “Spain’s dockers
are facing an unprecedented attack on their jobs in this important national
industry. Their colleagues worldwide are
supporting them in fighting back. Today’s action shows how prepared that
worldwide docker community is to challenge this ridiculous ‘reform’ and back
their Spanish comrades in their justified fight against it.”
ETF political secretary for dockers and
fisheries Livia Spera
commented: “Spain’s dockers have been pushed to take industrial action after
all their attempts to find a fair solution failed over the last week, due to
the internal division in the employers' association. Our Spanish unions are in favour of returning to the negotiating table
but at present they are sceptical about the employers' commitment to talk about
job guarantees for all dockers in all Spanish ports. This is a red line for
them.”
She continued: “In March we in the ETF had to put our
participation to the European social dialogue process on hold due to the lack
of proper social dialogue in Spain. As we see no substantial progress there, it
is not possible for us at the moment to reengage in the EU-level dialogue and
to attend the meeting that is scheduled to take place at the end of June.”
In Rotterdam the protesters will hand deliver this message
to the ship:
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