A communist-influenced union went on a 24-hour strike at Cosco group’s container ship terminal in Piraeus, warning of further walkouts if the Chinese giant fails to deliver on higher wages.
Angry workers gathered at the terminal gate early on Monday to try to disrupt trucks going in and out.
It is unclear to what extent they have succeeded. Labour leaders, however, promised to be back quickly if Cosco refuses to play ball.
Workers represented by the ENEDEP union want Cosco to sign a collective bargaining agreement that increases wages, widens hazardous work benefits to all employees and converts temporary contracts to permanent ones.
“We’ll continue our struggle and call on the company to satisfy our just demands,” ENEDEP leader Markos Bekris shouted in front of assembled co-workers, according to YouTube footage distributed by PAME, a communist labour union ENEDEP is affiliated with.
As in other parts of the world, disrupted supply chains and energy shortages have led to an inflationary burst in Greece. Consumer prices climbed at an annual pace of 5.1% in 2021, the highest in a decade and the second-highest in 25 years.
ENEDEP, however, has been a constant thorn in Cosco’s side well before prices climbed — and ever since the Chinese shipping giant entered the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) in 2008 and took a majority stake in it in 2016.
Union action hasn't stopped OLP from becoming Europe’s fourth-biggest boxship terminal under Cosco’s leadership. As global supply chains get ever tighter, however, ENEDEP has become much more effective at pulling its weight.
In November, Cosco management backed down and agreed to enhance safety measures after a worker was killed in an accident and ENEDEP threatened to go on rolling strikes.
According to local shipping agents, the union’s guerrilla tactics have caused 85 large container ships to shun the Greek terminal since then.
“Export and import cargoes were taken to nearby Mediterranean ports instead and transferred to Piraeus with large delays,” the Greece-based International Maritime Union said.
“Clients are still delivering import goods originally scheduled to arrive before the Christmas holidays.”
Big liner alliances are even considering excluding Piraeus from their routes — at least for the coming quarter, the agents said.
DPort Services, the company managing the terminal on behalf of Cosco’s Greek subsidiary, has claimed that ENEDEP does not represent all its workers and that it plays party-political games.
Police and the courts are usually on DPort’s side, declaring strikes illegal and cordoning off protesters to allow Cosco workers who are not on strike to access facilities.
Cosco expanded to Greece after the debt-laden country started privatising state assets to pay down international creditors. The Greek sales coincided with China’s global expansion through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Greece’s KKE, which controls PAME, is one of the last unreconstructed communist parties in the world. Its members deplore the demise of the Soviet Union and even praise former leader Joseph Stalin.
