Sea Port Dockers To Hold Strike ‘Indefinitely’
By Ali Nassor
Special to The St. Petersburg Times
Locked in a 10-year dispute over rights, dockers at St. Petersburg Sea Port will begin an indefinite strike starting August 30, in the process causing million-dollar losses to a metals firm that represents one of the port’s core shareholders. “We will start by ceasing to handle cargo from Novolipetsk Metal Factory,” Alexander Petrov, deputy head of the Russian Trade Union’s port committee said Wednesday at a press briefing. Novolipetsk Metal Factory acts as the local representative of Danish firm Jyst Stalindustry, which controls 51 percent of the St Petersburg Sea Port, Russia’s second-largest port. The remaining shares belong to the city government (29 percent) and federal authorities (20 percent). The factory could not be reached for comment on Thursday. The dockers will initiate the strike, the second in a month, over the refusal by the port authorities to extend their three-year working contract, which expired last month. Irina Krikun, spokeswoman for the port, said the dockers’ demanded conditions were “impossible to meet in the market economy as they owe their origin from the Soviet era.” Krikun added over the telephone that the dockers had already rejected a new contract draft. The dock workers can earn about $1,000 a month — three times the official average salary for St. Petersburg — and enjoy benefits that are to the detriment of the port’s financial situation, Krikun said. Mikhail Popov, a lawyer for the dockers’ union dismissed the accusation as groundless, saying the new conditions set by their employers infringe on workers’ rights since, among other things, they offered more working hours for lower wages and provide legal loopholes that could lead to loss of basic benefits. However, Sergei Ashcheulov, an independent shipping expert, believes the conflict “acts out a war between the past and the present,” in which workers “want former working conditions while enjoying the fruits of a modern market economy. “Should the dockers win out, it will be good news to other dockers elsewhere in Russia and a challenge to port authorities and other cargo dealers,” Ashcheulov said. “Strikes will be used as a short cut to settle differences.” This is the first time in Russia that dockers have declared an indefinite strike. Unlike in Novorossiisk, Russia’s largest port, St. Petersburg holds the national record for the regularity of its strikes. Even so, Ashcheulov said their past strikes were limited to “go-slow” or short working schedules and were usually resolved in a compromise. The regular disputes may have been exacerbated by constant ownership changes at the Sea Port and the changing nature of the shipping business in Russia, Krukin said. She admitted that the indefinite strike would cause massive losses to the port. “I can not fathom the extent of the damage not only to the port but also to other business organizations using the services,” Krukin said. Partial strikes, such as dockers’ refusal to work overtime, have already accounted for monthly losses of about $1.5 million, she said.
|
Ïåðåâåñòè íà ðóññêèé
Print this article
