Dockers across Brazil’s main ports protest threat to rights in proposed amendment to national law.
Dock workers from International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) affiliate CONTTMAF (Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Transportes Aquaviários e Aéreos, na Pesca e nos Portos) are carrying out a 12-hour stoppage of all activities today across the country's 32 main ports.
The dockers are protesting against the proposed amendment to the 2013 Ports Law which will enable the outsourcing of jobs, increased precarity and the wholesale undermining of long-established dockers’ rights.
At the recent ITF Congress in Marrakech, dockers from around the world showed solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Brazil.
ITF President, and Chair of the ITF Dockers’ Section, Paddy Crumlin, said: “Dockworkers all over the world are standing behind them with one message: respect Brazilian dockers, give them the right to work, give them the right to recognition, give them the jurisdiction, or otherwise Brazil won’t be able to move forward in any meaningful way.”
"This protest by Brazil’s dockers is completely legitimate because the employers' initiatives seek to make the workforce in the port precarious,” said José Adilson, Vice President of CONTTMAF and Chair of the ITF Dockers’ Section Latin America Regional Committee.
“Dockworkers are not willing to accept the amendment to this law because it also means a serious risk to the safety of port operations. All sections of transport workers represented by CONTTMAF are in solidarity with the struggle of our dockers."
The Brazil Ports Law regulates contracts managed via the non-profit Labour Management Body (OGMO), which oversees dockers’ remuneration and terms and conditions. The OGMO also guarantees professional training, qualifications and the organisation of occupational safety and health at work, and it establishes the exclusive hiring of workers in the categories of foremen, block workers, stevedoring, cargo inspection, cargo repair and ship surveillance.
The proposal to amend the law, which is under discussion before a committee in the Chamber of Deputies, aims to eliminate the exclusive hiring of self-employed workers registered in the OGMO. This would represent an opportunity for employers to outsource the jobs, creating a real risk in the operations in the port and eliminating rights in ports.
Edgar Díaz, ITF Regional Secretary for Latin America, added: "Dockers, represented by unions affiliated to CONTTMAF, have been excluded from the debates on this amendment. This goes against the spirit of the social dialogue established by conventions 87 and 98 of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
“The ITF and its affiliates stand by CONTMAFF in wanting to stop the amendment of this law and for the vital need for the trade union movement to be included in the social dialogue.”
The action in Brazil comes after a series of dock strikes around the world in defence of rights under attack, including the International Longshoremen Association’s (ILA) strike action against USMX on the US East Coast, the Maritime Union of Australia’s (MUA) industrial action across Australia against Qube Ports, the battle for respecting the basic right of freedom of association being fought by Turkish union Liman-İş against Borusan port employer, Borusan Lojistik AS, and the strike by the Karachi Dock Labour Board Democratic Workers Union (KDLBDWU) in Pakistan to defend the Karachi Dock Labour Board and its role in guaranteeing decent wages and conditions.
“Dockers’ basic rights are under attack all over the world right now – but as they always have, dockers are uniting and fighting back to secure their rights. The ITF is right behind them,” said ITF Dockers’ Section Coordinator, Enrico Tortolano.
“Corporate profiteering and politicians seeking to sell out their own workers will not go unanswered. As it always has, the ITF will do whatever it can to build the global unity and solidarity that will ensure dockers win their struggles and retain their rights.”
