Greece’s stevedores, like their ilk in many parts of the world are never afraid to back their demands by strike action. But everything has been going so smoothly under Cosco Pacific’s concession agreement with the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) that the call for a strike at the two container terminals came as a surprise. Or did it?
The unions have never been happy with the Cosco agreement, and especially so since the Chinese have emerged as frontrunner in the ongoing process to privatize Piraeus port. Further, it was union unrest back in 2008 as Greece headed into economic meltdown, that actually led to the 35-year concession agreement between the Chinese operator and the PPA.
“A strike has been called by around 150 dock workers,” announced Giorgos Georgakopoulos, head of the federation of Greek port employees (Omyle) July 18. Set to begin the following day, to back demands for back pay and improved labour conditions, the strike did not take place, because, Georgakopoulos said “agreement had been reached on some of the workers’ demands”.
Though peace now prevails, Omyle is still unhappy, for, as Georgakopoulos notes, under their work agreement Cosco staff are not allowed to unionise and said employment rules on the dock were unclear.
“Wage agreements are kept private, but we’ve been told of 35-euro salaries, far below what container crane operators should earn,” said the union head. “It’s also unclear what the work schedule is, people are called in via cell phone messages,” he said.
Cosco’s involvement in Piraeus is one of Greece’s top privatisation goals and Beijing has been courted by successive governments for further investment in Greece as it labours to pull out of a six-year recession. Union activity has always been a put-off for the Chinese.
Still, Greece and China mid-June signed investment and trade deals worth $6.5bn (EUR4.8bn) during an official visit by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang. These deals were further cemented during a visit to Greece mid-July by Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
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