The Antwerp Dockers’ BTB Youth Movement with ILWU International Vice President Ray Familathe & ILWU Young Workers from the United States and Canada.
“Good people share and aren’t scared about letting other people have a go,” Paddy Crumlin told a room full of International delegates in London this November. Crumlin is President of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), and he welcomed dozens of youth delegates to participate in the ITF Dockers Section meetings in London on November 14th-17th.
A day earlier, I joined 30 young dockworkers from 16 countries who attended the ITF Youth Dockers Section meeting, which helped us prepare for the following days when youth delegates observed and sat with representatives from many of the world’s dockworker unions as they conducted business.
I had the honor of representing the Local 23 Young Workers Committee and was part of an ILWU delegation that included International Vice President (Mainland) Ray Familathe, ILWU Canada President Rob Ashton, Local 502 youth delegates Ashley Bordignon and Dan Kask, Local 400 member and Canadian area ITF Coordinator Peter Lahay, Local 63 members Joe Gasperov, and Robert Abordo, and Kelly Dondero from the brand new Local 63 Superintendents Unit.
The ITF leadership understands that the new generation of workers have to participate in decisions because we will be most affected by automation and other changes in our workplaces. Dan Kask and I were invited to give a presentation about the work we have been doing to build a young workers movement in our union. We shared successes and lessons learned from ILWU Canada and Local 23. We discussed ideas and showed pictures of young workers volunteering in local communities, participating in conferences, leading peer-to-peer education events, marching in the streets and standing with other workers on their picket lines. We provided examples of how to use social media effectively and how to take stock of our individual skills and put them to work building the union.
The ITF leadership tasked the youth delegates with building a global framework for the ITF’s Youth Movement. We elected chairs, set up a strategy for navigating languages and regions using email and social media, and gave ourselves six months for each of our affiliated unions to start a Young Workers Committee with an internet presence. The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), the ILWU and now the Antwerp Dockers (Belgische Transport Bond – BTB) have all developed strong local young workers committees. In the coming months will help dockers from Spain, Colombia, Nicaragua, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Senegal and other countries develop their own committees. If we can build local capacity for action and participation in our affiliated unions, it helps build the capacity of the ITF to carry out global campaigns.
The ITF targets major port terminal operators with global campaigns
We learned about the United Nations “Global Compact” – a list of 10 principles that have been voluntarily adopted by 10,000 corporations around the world. The principles include the abolition of child labor, slavery, discrimination in the workplace and the right to free association and collective bargaining for workers.
We noted that only one global terminal operator has signed: APMT. I was moved by the words of ITF Dockers Assistant Secretary Nigel Venes, who said, “Employers have two faces and behave one way in the developed world and another in the developing world. We have to move through our industry and change these bandit employers.”
ILWU Local 502 Casual, Ashley Bordignon, gives a presentation to the ITF Young Dockers meeting in London. In September she was elected by her peers to ILWU Canada’s Young Workers Committee.
Strong women’s agenda
The ITF Women’s Conference took place in Marrakesh, Morocco, a week before our Dockers Section meeting. The Dockers Section approved a request to formalize a Women’s Working Group. This group will monitor women’s membership in the ITF, build networks to exchange experiences and best practices, and continue supporting ITF campaigns – including global initiatives to end workplace violence.
Other issues of concern on the ITF Women’s agenda include recruitment, safety, political action, equal pay, training, promotion and equal facilities.
November 19th was “World Toilet Day.” The ITF took the opportunity to launch a campaign, demanding separate and secure women’s facilities at port terminals around the world. I had to admit that this was a problem I had never considered and understood until now. Ports remain male-dominated workplaces. Part of normalizing women in our workplace is fighting for equal treatment and equal conditions.
Key issues remain
Health and safety, automation and respect for collective bargaining rights remain the most pressing issues across our industry. Too many terminal operators gallivant across North America, Western Europe and Australia, masquerading as safety conscious, ethical employers, when the reality is far different. Consider the example of DP
World’s terminal in Constanta, Romania, which has not reported a single injury in three years. We know that injuries and near-misses are not always properly handled and recorded in our own workplaces, and the situation is much worse outside of the developed world – and made worse everywhere due to poor terminal management.
In locations where “de-reguulation” or non-enforcement are the norm, employers have no reason to comply with any rules. In places like Africa, India and the Arab World, workplace monitoring is a preposterous farce. Lashing remains the most dangerous job, often performed by temporary workers who face death and serious injuries – along with constant threats to keep quiet. In Latin America, trade unionists are regularly assassinated, “disappeared.”
They and their families live under constant threats of violence and terrorism. Many of us know the story of Guatemalan trade union leader Pedro Zamora, who was gunned down in 2007 in front of his two children for resisting the privatization of a port in the Central American country. He was a leader of the Sindicato de Trabajadores Empresa Portuaria Quetzal (STEPQ), the Guatemalan dockers union. Three months ago, the current president of STEPQ received a message that if the union didn’t back off, they would mail him the ear of his 13-yearold daughter.
Where conditions are the worst, it is not just the lack of strong trade unions, but specifically what those unions represent, workers having a voice in their workplace. Having a voice on the job about safety and health is paramount to raising standards. To do that, workers must have laws that are enforced guaranteeing the right to form unions and to associate freely without threats and violence. Every gain that has been made in this arena has been won through workers struggle.
Conclusions
The ITF is changing by involving more women and young workers into the organization. The organization recognizes that young people have the least security, lowest wages and greatest vulnerability to layoffs and automation. It recognizes that women are the most vulnerable to workplace violence, discrimination and inequality.
And they understand that women and young people will bring vital new energy, new solutions, vision and creativity to our movement. Paddy Crumlin told the youth delegates that we have a responsibility to get involved with the ITF, just as the organization has a responsibility to include us.
If we can involve more young people and instill them with a sense of purpose, and possibility, then we will ensure that future generations will be in a better position to hold employers accountable and support struggles to raise standards for workers across our industry and around the world.
–Brian Skiffington