Cosco – Port of Piraeus personnel seething after the death of an employee

Determined to continue their mobilizations until justice is served for the tragic loss of their colleague but also to ensure modern conditions of health and safety in the work environment, the workers appear at piers II and III of SEP, a subsidiary of the Chinese company COSCO. In fact, the port workers informed about the lack of security measures last Saturday with messages via radio to the crews of the ships that remained offshore waiting to dock.

The message they sent stated: “To all the ships waiting for operation in the port of COSCO. We, the striking port workers, are addressing you. Six days ago a colleague of ours was killed in a work accident while on shift. The accident happened due to lack of safety measures. We are on strike for our right to work, for security measures and collective labor agreements. Your solidarity is our most important ally in our struggle. Our struggle is a struggle of all employees.” The ship’s crews responded with messages in their own languages.

With the decisions of the ENEDEP Association, the employees of SEP continue the mobilizations with a 48-hour strike next Friday and Saturday, with their demands to continue the implementation of the commitment of the company and the Ministry of Shipping to form a Health and Safety Committee with the participation members of the ENEDEP Association.

They also demand working groups of six (six posts) instead of the current four, the abolition of counter-shifts and the conversion of all contracts into full-time and the signing of collective labor agreements. They demand, as they characteristically emphasize – wanting to demonstrate the working conditions prevailing at piers II and III – “that we do not have to chase the daily wage from here and there” and “not to sleep with the mobile phone as an earring”.

It should be noted that the issue of hygiene and safety conditions in the workplaces of piers II and III put high on the agenda of the compromise proposal submitted in the previous days to open the port and the business entities of Piraeus, recommending the creation of a Joint Committee, which will meet jointly, on health and safety issues, with the participation of representatives of employees and employers and the Hellenic Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (ELINYAE), as the official body of the Social Partners.

Provocative announcement

According to container port employees, the problems they face in the port have been known for years. In a statement, the Federation of Greek Port Employees (OMYLE) states that “in addition to the special circumstances of the accident, our colleague fell victim to the intensification and “number-fetish” of COSCO where at this altar the people-workers come second. All these years we have been denouncing the contracting that has led to a regime of unregulated labor relations with the consequence of these dramatic results”.

The initial announcement of DPort (which has undertaken the support of the operation and management of the Container Station of the port of Piraeus on behalf of SEP SA), which tried not to characterize the accident as a labor accident, also made a sordid impression. Specifically, it stated that “DPort Services announces with pain the tragic death of its employee in the afternoon shift at 17.16 on October 25, 2021. The deceased was for an unknown reason near the crane bridge number 10 of Pier II”.

The workers protested strongly, emphasizing that the worker was on shift. Finally, with a new announcement on its Facebook page, DPort substantially reconstructed its previous position and in an extensive statement states, among other things, “the whole truth about Dimitris”, noting that “last Monday 25/10 at working time our employee Dimitris Daglis lost his life… “. Yesterday, the workers met at the Ministry of Labor with the Secretary General Anna Stratinaki, where they made their demands and stressed that the mobilizations will continue until the improvement of working conditions.