The Union of Stevedoring and Logistics Activity (SEAL) presented today a notice of strike from July 5 for the port of Lisbon, which will also be reflected in the port of Setúbal.
“The National Union of Stevedores, Traffic Workers, Sea Freight Forwarders and Others, on behalf and in representation of port workers integrated in its statutory scope, who carry out their professional activity in the areas of the Ports of Lisbon and Setúbal, declares strike to provide work in these ports, from 08:00 on July 5, 2023 until 08:00 on November 5, 2023,” indicated the SEAL in a statement.
At issue are the violations of the right to strike over the last three years by companies operating at the Port of Lisbon, placing third-party workers to perform work covered by the strike pre-announcements, thus undermining the effectiveness of any strike by port workers to obtain a fairer Collective Bargaining Agreement (CCT).
The SEAL recalled that their present struggle “began because all port operation companies decided, together, in a totally concerted manner, to file for insolvency the port labor cession company of which they were the only associates and, at the same time, the only clients, the A-ETPL,” and stressed that this struggle “will not end until the problem is resolved, by the companies or by the courts.”
“By now, it is a given that the reopening of the A-ETPL shop has fully proved the plan of all the companies to get rid of their workers at no cost, going so far as to claim to be unaware of workers who, for years on end, have been requested by them,” the union said.
To “allow the A-ETPL workers to return to the sector,” the SEAL explained “it has always chosen to allow a huge expansion of minimum services, far beyond what would legally be required, and still have ships covered by minimum services operated by workers from other companies without any prior requisition of workers to the union.
“Moreover,” he continued, “there are numerous cases, all already documented, of ships that, not being covered by the minimum services, were operated by temporary workers specifically hired for that purpose.
“All the port operator groups operating at the Port of Lisbon are using this ‘stratagem’, in a clear demonstration of fraud against the law (the ETE Group operates all ships offshore in this system), with the full connivance of ACT, which, at the Port of Lisbon, does not act at all, which is why the civil and criminal liability actions for violations of the right to strike that were being prepared before the start of negotiations with the Yildirim Group will now proceed,” said the sector’s union.
According to SEAL, “the strike will involve all permanent port workers and also those who have contractual port work contracts of limited duration, whose employers or users are the port labor companies or stevedoring companies operating in these ports, also including in the scope of the strike companies holding rights of private use in the respective port areas.
As for the operational incidence and daily duration of the strike, the union specified that “the strike will materialize in the abstention of work in all stevedoring companies of the Port of Lisbon (…) in all operations carried out, whatever the period of work, normal or supplementary, for the execution of which the employers or users of port labor hire or place workers outside the profession and that were not part of the effective and contingent on the date of February 4, 2020.
In the port of Setúbal, the SEAL said, the strike “will be restricted to abstaining from work on ships or cargoes that, in the context of the strike, are diverted from the Port of Lisbon to this port from February 4, 2020 until the final limit set in this notice of strike.
Stressing that “SEAL’s intention has always been the return to the port sector of A-ETPL workers, and it makes no difference whether they return to company A or B, as long as all their rights are safeguarded,” the union indicated that, for this reason, “the provision of work by workers from that company at the Port of Lisbon is not covered by this strike notice.
