DOCKERS have warned of industrial action, including strikes, as part of a Europe-wide trade union campaign against a proposed EU Directive on the liberalisation of port services.
Trade union delegates representing Cypriot longshoremen recently attended an ETF (European Transport Workers’ Federation) meeting in Brussels. ETF’s members, from 22 countries, unanimously agreed to take action in the event the EU Directive is sanctioned early next year.
On behalf of the transport workers, the SEK trade union issued an announcement saying Cypriot ports would inevitably be affected. Despite the warning, SEK said it planned to launch a campaign to inform the government, parliament and political parties of the problems facing the industry.
The draft Directive is currently being examined by a European Parliament and Council of the European Union conciliation committee in the final stage of the EU’s decision-making procedure. Its aim is to open up access to port services in EU Member States in order to avoid distortions of competition, and it aims to increase the scope for ‘self-handling’- i.e. cargo handling carried out by ship’s crews rather than dockers – and open the pilotage and towing of ships to more competition.
The concerns of the dockers’ unions relate to these liberalisation and ‘self-handling’ provisions. Specifically, they claim that the proposed Directive, if adopted in its current form, will bring about the following changes:
n The authorities and bodies managing ports will be reduced to mere service providers;
n Port workers’ safety will be placed at risk, since no provision is made in the proposal for safety measures or training for workers employed in port services. In order to deal with increased competition, all companies will be forced to use – in a sector involving extremely dangerous work – a cheap unskilled workforce, drawn from outside the official employment pool for port services;
n The liberalisation of pilotage services will give rise to safety issues in navigation; and
n The development of ports will be endangered, there will be an increase in accidents at work and there will be considerable effects on the environment.
Cypriot dockers, with the support of their road transport counterparts, joined in similar industrial action last year in September. The five-day strikes were then organised under the slogan ‘Leave it to the professionals. It’s our work’.
