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The ITF’s Dockers’ Section supports affiliated dock workers’ unions in defending the interests of their members. Those interests include:
This support may include:
Assisting affiliates in gathering and disseminating information on all workers’ interests
Assisting affiliates in gathering and disseminating information on the effects of port reforms and privatisation, increasing competition, sub-contracting and casualisation, globalisation of ownership and management of terminals and ports, the impact of new technology and automation, modernisation of labour and other industrial relations and any other issue related to the workers’ interests.
Supporting affiliates in labour disputes or any other conflict emerging from defending dock workers’ interests.
Organising and coordinating international solidarity action in support of affiliates confronted with union-busting or any other anti-trade union policy by authorities and/or employers.
Helping affiliates to develop their own policies to support their members' interests.
Organising international campaigns centred on specific joint interests, such as the ratification and implementation of ILO Conventions.
Organising meetings, conferences and seminars to enable affiliates to exchange information and develop and coordinate international trade union policies.
The Dockers’ Section works closely with other ITF Sections, regional offices, affiliated unions, other Global Union Federations and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The ITF Dockers’ Section represents trade unions organising not only those who are directly involved in cargo handling (dock workers, longshore workers, waterfront workers, stevedores, warehouse workers or whatever name they have been given in a particular port) but also workers indirectly involved in cargo handling such as office workers and those employed by agencies, port authorities, forwarders, etc. Workers performing tasks related to the arrival or departure of ships, such as tugging, mooring and piloting may also be represented.
In assisting and supporting its affiliates neither the ITF nor the Dockers’ Section differentiate between workers employed by the state, city or other authority or a private company.
Priorities
The Dockers’ Section has 2 strategic priorities:
1. The Ports of Convenience Campaign
2. Promoting organising to increase union strength in terms of numbers, activism and influence
1. THE PORTS OF CONVENIENCE CAMPAIGN
The Ports of Convenience (‘POC’) Campaign draws its name from the ITF’s long-established Flags of Convenience Campaign and shares the goal of winning decent labour standards for workers in the industry.
A ‘Port of Convenience’ is a port or terminal that is sub-standard in terms of its working conditions. The aim of the POC campaign is to eliminate poor working conditions in ports and to set labour standards that are acceptable to ITF dockers’ unions, creating fair and safe working environments for dockworkers around the world.
Ports of Convenience are not a new phenomenon but they have expanded rapidly and thrived as the globalisation process and the drive to lower cost while increasing productivity eroded dockworkers’ employment terms and conditions.
The ITF and its affiliates have long campaigned against such ports, calling on international solidarity to support individual unions whenever the need arose, and we continue to target action against such ports today. However, the need for a pro-active, strategic and coordinated campaign was apparent and in 2006, the Dockers’ Section launched the POC Campaign at the ITF’s 41st Congress in Durban, South Africa with a view to tackling the main underlying causes of sub-standard ports.
Following extensive consultation with affiliates through a series of regional planning seminars, it was agreed that in order to achieve its aim of setting acceptable standards in ports and terminals, the Dockers Section needed to focus its Ports of Convenience Campaign activity on the following 5 key areas:
1. Global Network Terminal Operators or ‘GNTs’ (global companies operating container terminals in a number of countries around the world)
2. Casualisation
3. Competition
4. Privatisation
5. Trade union rights
The POC Campaign is a global campaign. However, to ensure that the differences between regions can be accommodated, the section and affiliates have identified regional and sub-regional priorities and action plans to facilitate the practical implementation of the campaign.
An important approach of the POC Campaign is its focus on building union strength within the GNTs and along maritime transport corridors including regional and sub-regional routes. Cooperation with other unions in the transport chain and building strength in landside operations such as warehousing, container freight stations, administration and planning are also important aspects of the campaign.
Global Network Terminal Operators Strategy
Dockers’ unions recognise the importance of responding to the GNTs, particularly the largest companies which hold large portfolios of terminals distributed around the world. GNTs have a lot of influence over the container transport trade and their power is expected to increase in coming years as they expand their international networks by taking over existing terminals and building new terminals in greenfield sites.
The top four companies, Hutchison Port Holdings (link to site), APM Terminals (link to site), PSA International (link to site) and Dubai Ports World (link to site) between them handled 224.3 million teu in 2007, the equivalent of 45.1% of the world container port throughput. (Source: Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd.)
Due to their size and power, the decisions taken by these companies have a significant impact on dockworkers’ jobs around the world, whether GNTs are seeking new investment opportunities through bidding for concessions in a privatisation process or pursuing business strategies to make themselves more competitive and profitable.
The ITF and its affiliates have worked towards dialogues with these four largest companies and are engaging them in discussions on how to deal with crucial issues such as respect for trade union rights, creating safe working places by promoting best practice in health and safety, developing good industrial relations and managing the impact of economic downturns together.
The aims of the Dockers’ Section GNT strategy are:
* Recognition of trade union rights and union recognition in terminals
* Local collective bargaining and agreements
* Good health and safety standards
* Union networks and communications
* Global dialogue leading to International Framework Agreements setting minimum standards if appropriate
* Solidarity for local union campaigns and assistance in dispute resolution
POC Database
To support the POC Campaign and in particular to promote the GNT strategy, the ITF has developed a Ports of Convenience Database which dockers’ affiliates can use to access information about the major companies and the terminals that they run. It is intended to be a practical tool to help dockers' affiliates gain a better understanding of the GNTs that they face and to support union organising and campaigning activities.
The content of the database will be improved over time, and affiliates' contributions and suggestions will be crucial to its success. The database has been designed to be accessible, easy to use and contains information for use by practitioners at all levels within a union, although this is only available in English. It covers information on ports where the GNTs operate; terminals operated by GNTs; stakeholders in those terminals and other relevant information. The content of the database can be viewed on screen, searched and printed out. Data can also be downloaded as a spreadsheet, allowing the user to produce tables and graphs to suit their needs. Access to the POC Database is restricted to ITF affiliates, who are also encouraged to contribute information.
[Click here to access the POC Database]
2. ORGANISING STRATEGY
The Dockers’ Section organising strategy operates at two levels:
1. Organising as a key element of strategies to address the 5 POC Campaign focus areas mentioned above
2. Specific Global Organising initiatives targeting strategically important companies and geographical locations
Unions recognise that organising workers is vitally important to safeguard workers’ rights whether they are dealing with global companies, facing competition from sub-standard ports, resisting the growth of casualisation and contract work, fighting the negative impacts of privatisation or defending trade union rights. Clearly, workers who are organised into strong unions have greater bargaining power and a better ability to provide the solidarity support that is increasingly important to combat the global race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.
Unions will clearly take the lead in organising campaigns to recruit new members. However, the Section can assist by providing support in the following areas:
* Information sharing
* Capacity building
* Research
* Coordinating global campaigns to support workplace organising campaigns
* Facilitating union cooperation and resource sharing
The Section is also working with unions to develop targeted projects on a regional and sub-regional basis to increase union strength in strategically important ports.
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