ACN/AKN: Report on the 5th International Dockworkers Conference

ACN/AKN Report on the 5th International Dockworkers Conference

For a new form of organization on the quays – International!


In the heart of the port of Hamburg, the port museum Schuppen 50a, exactly at 13:00 hours the 5th Dockworkers Conference started. The coordination group could greet dockworkers, activists and friends from the dockworkers from Rotterdam, Delfzijl/Eemshaven, as well as Bremerhaven, Lübeck, Hamburg, Rostock and Duisburg/Dormagen. With the different activities of the conference more than 40 co-workers participated, while during the deliberations between 25 and 30 co-workers participated. A word of greeting was done from the side of the Betriebsrat in the port of Hamburg, as well as Deputy Chairman and also DGB-Chairman of the Norse Transport workers Union, Terje Samuelsen. The last linked some things with a vindication of solidarity with the struggle of the dockworkers in Risanka, Tromso and Mosjoen. On Saturday night a Kulturfest was held with a compelling program in the social centre of Eidelstedt. Many thanks go out to all who contributed to the success of the conference.

All reports as well as the following lively discussion outlined a differentiated and vivid picture of the life, work and struggle of the dockworkers.


– The last years there was an unprecedented increase of productivity and flexibility of working times. From now on three container bridges at the new ATM-Terminal on the Maasvlakte 2 can be controlled by a co-worker from the main office. Working times are being focused more and more on the arrivals of the ships.

– By the creation of capitalist overcapacity (among others in Zeehaven, Willemshaven, expansion in Rotterdam, etc.) the competition between the harbor-barons, raiders and the capitalist states themselves becomes fueled. In this context mostly the political rights and liberties as well as the strike- and association laws will be severely limited. More and more dockworkers work without a contract or a CLA (amongst others in Lübeck) and/or have to work on quays ‘cleared’ from Unions. This is also a declared goal of Port package III in Europe and the secret negotiations on the free trade agreement TTIP, etc. Because the European Commission is now pointing its arrows towards the organization of the dockwork in Spain and Belgium, solidarity is a necessity. It’s up to us to inform our co-workers in the different ports and to mobilize them.

– The dockworkers are a force! On the foundation of the highly organized and sensitive logistics the strike-actions quickly have a decisive efficiency. For instance a well-organized and independent work-slow action in Rotterdam against the AMP terminals secured a CLA for Maasvlakte 2. The redirected ships to Antwerp led to a logistic chaos over there. After two weeks Maersk (a raider) gave in.

– The necessity for a new form of organization became evident. The Unions are necessary as struggle-organizations. However, the fragmentation stimulated by the harbor-barons also asks for new forms of organization, such as the corporate groups/newspapers like ‘De Volle Lading’ and ‘Docker zeigen Klare kante’ in Rotterdam and Northern-Germany. For this a ‘new’ way of thought is needed to get rid of the influence of the reformist class-collaboration politics and the undermining of the class-consciousness.

– Also there are new demands to the class-consciousness, which are determined by the transition to a military disaster. Damage to man and nature by toxic exhaust of ship engines, nuclear transports, lowering rivers etc. question the unity of man and nature.


Finally, the consensus was reached that the contacts and structures of the dockworkers conference needed to be used more intensively to organize practical solidarity, sending delegations to the frontlines of struggle and to mutually inform each other. For the continued union of the dockworkers, revolutionary forces are an absolute necessity. The membership of the ICOR needs to be used to establish international contacts, like those with the Tunisian dockworkers. A great share of the port handling is bulk, including coal, what makes a co-operation with the miners logical. However, the foundation of the dockworkers conference remains the organized efficacy in each port.

Declarations of solidarity were adopted in regard of the strikes of the co-workers of the GDL, the coming strikes of the dockworkers in Akaba (Jordan) and San José (Costa Rica) and the Kurdish struggle for liberation/Kobani.




Report in regard of the situation in Lübeck

Published during the 5th international Dockers-conference in Hamburg – 24/25 October 2014


The meaning and development of the port of Lübeck

Approximately 900 workers still work in the port of Lübeck, 540 of them with LHG (Lübecker Hafengesellschaft), which is still mostly state-possessed, and 180 with the HBV (Hafenbetriebsverein). The port of Lübeck is the biggest Eastern-Sea port of Germany. Through this port the transport of goods towards 24 ports in Sweden, Russia, Finland and the Baltic States are dispatched. Paper, wood products, cars and containers are transported. The highest level of transport was reached in 2007 with the dispatch of more than 30 million tons. In 2013 the transport was decreased to 23 million tons, as a result of the economic crisis.


The struggle of the dockers of Lübeck against the increasing exploitation

Two years ago the German Asset, 100 % a daughter-enterprise of the Deutsche Bank, increased its share in the Lübecker Hafengesellschaft to 37,5 % and dictates its corporate policy. Because of this the dockers have been deprived of a CLA (Collective Labor Agreement), during a period of over 1,5 year. In December 2013, 200 co-workers held a manifestation in the centre of Lübeck and in the beginning of 2014 several strikes followed. They demanded work-time relief with preservation of working places and a working place-guarantee until 2024 (to be given by the city of Lübeck). These 24-hours strikes had a huge effect, and as consequence the corporate leadership resorted to the organization of scab-activities. However, the Union (of Transport workers) did not organize the solidarity of the other dockers against the scab-activities in Rostock and at Lehman, a small storage company in Lübeck. When a raider moved entirely to Lehman , many workers feared for their employment and the willingness to strike crumbled. The Union closed a CLA with open hour ATV with a respective 6 days off a year, but without a raise of salary and no working place guarantee. The announced salary decreases could be prevented. The Union declared to be prepared to engage in “open conversations about an economic sanitation of the Hafengesellschaft” anyway. An agreement for the CLA of 2013/2014 is still not there. This concerns flexible working times as well as the rewards for overtime. The LHG corporate leadership shamelessly demands seven days of work time enlargement and only offers a ridiculous increase of wage of 1%. The raider Finlines changed the shifts in such a way that more night- and weekend shifts became necessary. During this the workers are exposed to particles of rust and sticky-oxides, which are exhausted during the ships docking times to get electricity from land aboard.


The experiences of the struggle of the dockers in Lübeck

Over 90% of the dockers of Lübeck are organized. In 2006 they participated in strikes against Port Package II with which they provided Lübeck the nickname “strike-port”. The class-consciousness which developed during this cannot be taken away from the co-workers anymore and their eagerness for combat will develop again. Nowadays we see a more passive attitude. The defeat of last spring first needs to be processed better and the criticism on the Union has to be developed better. A strike in a single port can be broken very fast today by redirecting the ships to other transport-ports. A spontaneous solidarity of the dockers in the ports of the Eastern-Sea is not enough, these days this has to be done in a more organized matter. Nowadays it is more than ever necessary to engage in a unified national and international struggle of dockers.. We have talked with many co-workers during the International Conference of Dockers. Almost everybody agreed. However, most co-workers still have to work this Saturday, others tell us that because of the working pressure they need the weekend for their family at home. The thought that the Union needs to be occupied with the organization of cooperation with workers of other ports is generally supported. However, the Union does not make any effort to achieve this. So now it is up to combative co-workers to take this initiative into their own hands. The most of the Lübecker dockers are proponents of sitting around the table with their co-workers in Rostock as a first step. Such a project needs active people and until now it has not been possible to bring together such a circle of co-workers. The experiences from this conference will greatly help us in this effort.


Source:
https://acnaknnederland.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/acnakn-report-on-the-5th-international-dockworkers-conference/