Posting this on behalf of Svein Lundeng and
Hamnarbetarförbundet
On Wednesday morning, the Swedish Dockworkers Union (SDU) local 4 in Gothenburg, Sweden, received a notice of upcoming industrial action from APM Terminals.
The notice about an upcoming lockout is a dramatic escalation of the conflict, and the concequences are hard to grasp.
From the 19th of May until the 30th of June, APM Terminals will execute lockout action against all SDU members in the container terminal between 16.00 and 07.00 on weekdays. At the same time, the company announced in a press release that the terminal will close down it's operations on all weekday evenings and nights during the period.
When the lockout notice was delievered, the company couldn't specify how the individual dockworkers would be affected.
In internal communication to the employees later on, APM Terminals stated that dockworkers scheduled to work evening shifts would be shut out of the workplace at 16.00 (most evening shifts start at 15.00) and would receive no pay for the remainder of the shift. The different night shifts were informed that their work patterns would be "changed to daytime work every other week", which means that they will be locked out without pay the rest of the time.
However, when APM Terminals CEO Henrik Kristensen was interviewed by Swedish Radio, he delivered a different message about what the practical implications of the announced lockout would be:
From the 19th of May until the 30th of June, APM Terminals will execute lockout action against all SDU members in the container terminal between 16.00 and 07.00 on weekdays. At the same time, the company announced in a press release that the terminal will close down it's operations on all weekday evenings and nights during the period.
When the lockout notice was delievered, the company couldn't specify how the individual dockworkers would be affected.
In internal communication to the employees later on, APM Terminals stated that dockworkers scheduled to work evening shifts would be shut out of the workplace at 16.00 (most evening shifts start at 15.00) and would receive no pay for the remainder of the shift. The different night shifts were informed that their work patterns would be "changed to daytime work every other week", which means that they will be locked out without pay the rest of the time.
However, when APM Terminals CEO Henrik Kristensen was interviewed by Swedish Radio, he delivered a different message about what the practical implications of the announced lockout would be:
SWEDISH RADIO: "(...) will they [the dockworkers] work daytime shifts or will they be locked out without pay?"
CEO KRISTENSEN: "That is correct, they will work the daytime shift. We will do that so that the individual coworker working evening or night shifts will not be affected. We will adjust the working hours."
APM Terminals later retracted Kristensen's statement and clarified that the previous message to the staff was the correct one.
Most dockworkers with employment contracts in the container terminal work Day/Evening shifts and the port has around a hundred dockworkers scheduled to work on an average weekday evening. The scheduled workforce during the weekday nights amounts to some 40 dockworkers per night. Thus, APM Terminals announcement that it will shut down all operations 15 hours per weekday means that the vast majority of the SDU's members will be locked out and have their salaries cut by half during the whole period.
The Swedish Dockworkers' Union acknowledges that APM Terminals has the legal right to take large-scale industrial action and initiate a lockout of it's own workforce, but expects the APMT management to take responsibility for it's own actions as it now drastically escalates the dispute. Just during the first of the 28 affected weekdays, the lockout will stop production for twice as long as all SDU actions during the last six months. It is simply irresponsible to try to blame the announced shutdown of evening and night operations in the terminal on the workforce's unwillingness to work overtime, while at the same time claiming that that some 30 permanently employed dockworkers (and twice as many on temporary contracts) are redundant. APM Terminals re-affirmed it's position yesterday, saying in an internal letter to the staff that redundancy layoffs will go ahead as planned:
"The redundacy notice still stands and layoffs will begin before summer."
CEO KRISTENSEN: "That is correct, they will work the daytime shift. We will do that so that the individual coworker working evening or night shifts will not be affected. We will adjust the working hours."
APM Terminals later retracted Kristensen's statement and clarified that the previous message to the staff was the correct one.
Most dockworkers with employment contracts in the container terminal work Day/Evening shifts and the port has around a hundred dockworkers scheduled to work on an average weekday evening. The scheduled workforce during the weekday nights amounts to some 40 dockworkers per night. Thus, APM Terminals announcement that it will shut down all operations 15 hours per weekday means that the vast majority of the SDU's members will be locked out and have their salaries cut by half during the whole period.
The Swedish Dockworkers' Union acknowledges that APM Terminals has the legal right to take large-scale industrial action and initiate a lockout of it's own workforce, but expects the APMT management to take responsibility for it's own actions as it now drastically escalates the dispute. Just during the first of the 28 affected weekdays, the lockout will stop production for twice as long as all SDU actions during the last six months. It is simply irresponsible to try to blame the announced shutdown of evening and night operations in the terminal on the workforce's unwillingness to work overtime, while at the same time claiming that that some 30 permanently employed dockworkers (and twice as many on temporary contracts) are redundant. APM Terminals re-affirmed it's position yesterday, saying in an internal letter to the staff that redundancy layoffs will go ahead as planned:
"The redundacy notice still stands and layoffs will begin before summer."
The SDU is prepared to sign a CBA including a 'no strike' clause, and rejects APM Terminals' claim that the union "refuses to sign the industry's Collective Bargaining Agreement". In January this year, the Swedish Dockworkers' Union even made a direct public offer to sign the current national CBA in a tripartite contract together with the Swedish Transport Workers' Union (STWU) and the employers' organisation Ports of Sweden. At this point, there is a window of opportunity to reach such an agreement as the national CBA has expired and central contract negotiations are ongoing.
Locally, the SDU local 4 is open to any kind of contract solution in the Gothenburg container terminal that will, in practice, mean the union becomes an equal CBA stakeholder together with the minority union STWU.
APM Terminals Gothenburg's CEO Henrik Kristensen stated on Swedish Radio yesterday that he hopes to reach an agreement with the SDU in the next seven days, before the lockout is launched. However, as of now there are no negotiations or meetings planned. The SDU is being shut out of the central contract negotiations and the union has been forced to sue Ports of Sweden for it's refusal to even come to the negotiation table. In Gothenburg, APM Terminals has not summoned the SDU to a single negotiation during 2017.
The SDU local 4 held an extra board meeting on Wednesday to discuss APM Terminals' notice of industrial action. All SDU members in the container terminal will soon be called to a membership assembly to decide on how the union should respond to the company's lockout notice and related issues. Detailed information on proposals for the assembly will be presented later.
Watch a video about the APMT Gothenburg Dispute
Read more about the APMT Gothenburg Dispute
Locally, the SDU local 4 is open to any kind of contract solution in the Gothenburg container terminal that will, in practice, mean the union becomes an equal CBA stakeholder together with the minority union STWU.
APM Terminals Gothenburg's CEO Henrik Kristensen stated on Swedish Radio yesterday that he hopes to reach an agreement with the SDU in the next seven days, before the lockout is launched. However, as of now there are no negotiations or meetings planned. The SDU is being shut out of the central contract negotiations and the union has been forced to sue Ports of Sweden for it's refusal to even come to the negotiation table. In Gothenburg, APM Terminals has not summoned the SDU to a single negotiation during 2017.
The SDU local 4 held an extra board meeting on Wednesday to discuss APM Terminals' notice of industrial action. All SDU members in the container terminal will soon be called to a membership assembly to decide on how the union should respond to the company's lockout notice and related issues. Detailed information on proposals for the assembly will be presented later.
Watch a video about the APMT Gothenburg Dispute
Read more about the APMT Gothenburg Dispute
Eight-day strike to hit Spanish ports
Anastassios Adamopoulos | Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Go-slows in major ports have already begun as unions protest labour reforms
Spanish trade unions called eight days of strikes for late May in protest of the government’s proposed stevedore labour reforms, while sources in Spain claim worker productivity has already intentionally decreased.
Unions proclaimed that they would hold strikes from May 24 until June 9, during odd hours on each Monday, Wednesday and Friday, in response to the Council of Ministers’ decision to adopt the reforms on May 12. The Spanish parliament needs to ratify the proposal within the next month.
Industry sources in Spain told Lloyd’s List that after the council’s approval, port workers reinitiated the go-slows that hampered the sector in early February to mid-March. Productivity has decreased as much as 30% in the ports of Valencia, Las Palmas, Barcelona and Algeciras, they claim.
The last round of go-slows had an immediate impact on Spanish ports and their operators, with Maersk reporting that it lost €12m ($13.3m) and diverted 73 vessels to neighbouring countries’ ports. A PwC report published in February estimated that Spanish ports generated €24.5m per day and were responsible for 145,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The proposed labour reforms, negotiated with the European Union to align Spain’s law with that of the EU in the face of mounting multi-million-euro fines, seek to liberalise the stevedore profession by eliminating Sagep — the private enterprise pool company that employers must go through to hire stevedores — and limiting collective bargaining.
While the government's first attempt to legislate the reform failed, with the parliament’s rejection in mid-March, Spanish media are reporting that the Catalan European Democratic Party is ready to support the reforms in parliament, thus giving the government the majority it needs.
Despite negotiating with employers and a government-appointed mediator since March to find an agreeable set of reforms, neither the unions nor employers were informed of the content of the new royal decree before it was presented to the council of ministers. The government published the royal decree on Saturday.
First published on www.lloydslist.com
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115,000 dockers from around the world will support the actions taken by Spanish dockers with all their consequences
International Dockworkers Council (IDC) has demanded that dock workers in the alternative ports of France, Italy, Portugal or Morocco do not carry out the work of unloading the goods that were originally destined for Spain.
The Spanish Ministry of Development presented last Friday a Royal Decree that modifies the port stowage system without guaranteeing the jobs of more than 6,000 stevedores.
According to the General Coordinator of the IDC, "This is an offense to the whole collective. We will not allow the intransigence of the Government of Spain to lead to the collective dismissal of our colleagues."
The International Dockworkers Council (IDC), the world's leading stevedoring union, with more than 100,000 associated workers in ports on all continents; Shows its deep rejection of the new Royal Decree Law presented on Friday by the Spanish Government in a unilateral and authoritarian way, without the workers' consensus.
The IDC is concerned about the maneuver of the national government, failing to fulfill its promise to give voice to the social part and put at risk the jobs of more than 6,000 stevedores of the Spanish ports. The subrogation, the main demand of the workers, has not been included in the legal text despite the fact that since the Executive of the European Union "they have not put any obstacle so that it is," said IDC.
In the words of the IDC General Coordinator, Jordi Aragunde "we will stand by the Spanish workers and offer our full support to the final consequences. This is an offense to the whole collective, the more than 115,000 stevedores affiliated with the International Dockworkers Council in ports around the world. We will not allow the intransigence of the Government of Spain and its authoritarian measures, without consensus and with personal interests, lead to the collective dismissal of our colleagues, or to endanger their working conditions, health and safety, carved after years of dialogue With the companies ".
The union Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores del Mar (CETM), the leading Spanish union in the stevedoring sector and a member and founding member of the IDC, has submitted strike notice for eight alternating days and alternating hours. The International Dockworkers Council unhesitatingly supports this measure, as it is the only legal alternative left for workers to be heard in a dialogue with all parties, and that their requests are collected.
The IDC has asked its affiliates around the world the maximum support to the Spanish workers before the affront that they suffer, that can lead to the disappearance of their jobs. Fundamentally those workers who work in ports bordering and alternative to Spain (in France, Italy, Portugal, Morocco ...) to which the shipping companies can derive their traffic in case of confirmation of union strike. No ship may unload its goods if these were destined for Spain. This is an essential measure so that his Spanish colleagues can establish a negotiation with the Government of their country and the employers.
IDC explains in its statement that a few weeks ago, the Spanish trade union representatives presented to the Ministry of Public Works several documents made by national and international legal experts in which they demonstrate the normality that would represent the Spanish legal system advocate for the conservation of jobs in Compliance with Community law and the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). However "they have not received a response and have met with a non-consensual text" that the IDC rejects.
#DecretoEstibaNO
#DecretoEstibaNO
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