shipping
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in transport and distribution around the world.
No go, P&O! - Thames Valley Class Struggle Group
Leaflet produced as an intervention into the 1988-1989 strike by P&O ferry workers against attacks on their working conditions.
Seafarers fight on
Dover port workers to resume strike action this Thursday
Workers at Dover port are to launch a three day strike from Thursday.
Hundreds of workers employed by the Dover Harbour Board (DHB) are to take strike action against plans to outsource their jobs. The ballot organised by Unite saw 83.5% of votes returned in support.
Coastguards in 48 hour bank holiday strike
Office workers in the Maritime and Coastguard Agency strike over poor pay.
following the offer of a paltry 2.5% pay increase, well below inflation levels, 700 Rescue Co-ordinators backed by the Public and Commercial Sevices Union have taken strike action against real-terms cuts to already poor pay.
1987: The Great Workers' Struggle in South Korea
A short account of the South Korean strike wave of 1987 known as the Great Workers' Struggle. Affecting most major industries and involving over a million workers, the strikes and militant tactics used won significant gains in pay and conditions for many.
The workplace struggles that took place in 1987 occurred within the wider background of political reform. For thirty years South Korea had been ruled by a military dictatorship, and growing calls for democracy had echoed across the peninsula through the 1970s and early 80s.
Strike in the docks of Constanta
Account of the recent strike at DP World Container Port in Romania.
DP World - Europe's Eastern gateway blocked:
Strike in the docks of Constanta
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
With a planetary ecological crisis on hand, it can no longer be denied that socialism will be incompatible with mass production and mass consumption. Indeed, even without returning to Malthusian catastrophe theories, we are forced to admit that the planet’s resources are not inexhaustible. These resources could provide for humanity’s needs, but only if they are used in a reasonable and rational way, i.e., in a manner directly opposed to capitalist logic, which in itself is a source of imbalance.
The Ecological Challenge: Three Revolutions are Necessary
by Alternative Libertaire
Dockworkers strike against war in America and Iraq
25,000 dock workers in 29 ports across the US went on strike today, to protest the war in Iraq. Meanwhile, in Iraq, dockers stopped work for an hour in a show of international solidarity.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union declared the day as "a day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. This may be the beginning of a record setting anti-war action, since the vast majority of supplies and munitions for the American government's current wars are shipped from the 29 ports on the West Coast. All 29 were closed today.
French docks blockaded in strike action
Workers at France's seven biggest ports went on strike today to protest a government plan to sell dock-equipment management to private companies and take staff off public payrolls.
Sixty-seven vessels including thirty-nine tankers stranded at the harbor's entrance. Government officials, port managers and union representatives are yet to tally the costs of the strike. A 17-day walkout last year in Marseille alone cost Manutention Generale Mediterraneenne, the port's biggest cargo- handler, €1.5 million ($2.4 million).
South African workers refuse to move arms bound for Zimbabwe
South African Transport Union members have announced they will not offload Chinese arms that are being shipped to crisis-torn Zimbabwe.
A boat carrying an arms shipment destined for Zimbabwe is anchored at the South African port of Durban. However the South African Transport Workers' Union has already announced that their members will not offload any of the cargo, nor will any of their truckers transport it.
Greece heading towards general strike
Greek workers are set to go on general strike tomorrow (Wednesday 19th March) in protest of the government's planned pension reforms.
The government's reforms would mean the merging of pension funds and increasing the pension age for some workers. The government, however, has not made public any details on the size of savings that will accrue from the reforms. The trade unions have also argued that the current pension system could survive if bosses were made to pay their contributions.
