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          Shipping Stevedoring Port Services Hydrocarbons Diving  Jul-Aug 2008 
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European ports week of action begins07 September 2003
Dock workers will mobilise across Europe this week (8 to 12 September) against selfhandling on ships and the proposed European Ports Directive, and in preparation for a further major action on 29 September. They will be supported by volunteers from seafarers' unions and the ITF's force of maritime inspectors. As of today local actions are planned, along with a rolling programme of information meetings leading to two-hour work stoppages in The Netherlands, Germany and Cyprus. Similar stoppages and disruption will take place in Belgium. Other countries participating include: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Malta and Poland. Port workers will rally under the slogan "Leave it to the Professionals. It's Our Work!" (see download on website). Running alongside the action will be a huge exercise by seafarer volunteers and ITF inspectors to leaflet the crews of ships visiting European ports and remind them of the dangers of ships' crews undertaking the dangerous cargo handling work normally done by trained dockers, and that this selfhandling is prohibited on flag of convenience ships operating under ITF agreements (which seek to enforce minimum standards of protection for crews on ships flying flags that otherwise offer little or none). Please contact dawson_sam@itf.org.uk if you would like a sample leaflet. The events of this week will also feed into preparations for a planned massive rally against the proposed EU directive that will be held in either Brussels or Rotterdam on 29 September. A 24-hour port strike is now scheduled to take place in Belgium on that day and work stoppages will be held in other European countries. Plans for these will be finalised during next week's action. ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: "This week will see the unveiling of a worldwide campaign against selfhandling and yet another reminder to the EU that the proposed directive would enshrine in law the very kind of dangerous deskilling and casualisation that endangers the lives of everyone concerned. Once again our message is that the directive is a disaster waiting to happen. It must be put where it belongs, in the crackpot ideas bin, while there's still time." On 17 January this year 20,000 port workers across Europe took part in protests against the directive, while in February and March the ITF's European regional arm the ETF organised lobbies of the European Parliament and major demonstrations in Brussels and Strasbourg. (For more information see http://www.itf.org.uk/media/releases/040803.html )
Download more info: For further information
Public News: You can view MUA's publicly available news in a variety of ways. Please select one of our public news indexes. |
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