DOCKERS GATHER IN GOTHENBURG TO RENEW LASHING CAMPAIGN

DOCKERS GATHER IN GOTHENBURG TO RENEW LASHING CAMPAIGN

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More than 50 dockers from several Swedish ports met today in Gothenburg, Sweden, for a workshop about lashing, where concrete plans for rolling out the lashing campaign in Sweden were made.

Lashing – the fastening of cargo to a ship – is a key part of dockers’ work. Only dockers have the skills to do this dangerous task safely, but many shipowners push seafarers to lash cargo in order to save time and money. This puts seafarers at risk of accidents and eats into their shore leave, while taking away work from qualified dockers already under pressure from port automation.

Peter Lövkvist, Head of the international department of Swedish Transport Workers' Union, delcared "we are proud to host the ETF and the ITF here in Gothenburg today. As technological developments erode the number of jobs in ports, we are determined to get back any single job in our ports, inlcuding lashing."

Today’s workshop is part of our long-running campaign with the ITF to defend the principle that lashing is dockers’ work. The campaign recently achieved a major victory, with a global agreement between maritime employers and unions that lashing work should only be done by dockers unless otherwise agreed. However, we now need to make sure that this dockers’ clause is implemented. Dockers must be informed and ready to mobilise because their role will be crucial.

Our workshops are part of that process, and this is the first in a new series of meetings to follow up on the recent agreement. The Swedish participants were joined by international guests including the ITF and ETF Secretariats, ITF inspectors, a delegation of Norwegian dockers, and members of the ETF Dockers Steering Committee.

Chair of the ETF Dockers Section, Terje Samuelsen, said that “lashing is a real priority for the ETF. We need to build on our recent success in global negotiations and get the dockers’ clause implemented all over Europe. Solidarity has always been key to our success: solidarity between dockers in different countries and solidarity between dockers and seafarers. Workers standing together can fight against social dumping and exploitation: that’s the message of our campaign for Fair Transport in Europe.”

Mikael Gustafsson, who is very active in the ETF young dockers’ group and a youth representative in the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union, stressed how important the lashing campaign is for younf workers: “Lashing is crucial for the future of dockwork, and we young dockers are fully engaged in the struggle and determined to get it back.”    

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