Port workers throughout Brazil are planning a 24 hour strike this week

Port workers from all over the country will meet next Tuesday, to coordinate a national strike. The plan is to set up picket lines over 24 hours to pressure the government to release a vaccination schedule for port workers accross the country. Yesterday, a protest in front of the Santos Port Authority (SPA) headquarters took place.

Similar action was carried out in several ports in the country, such as in Rio de Janeiro, Natal (RN), Salvador (BA) and São Francisco do Sul (SC).

In Santos, the protest was coordinated by the Port Unit, an entity that brings together workers unions from the Santos pier. In addition to port workers, watchmen, repairmen and port administration officials also took part.

The strike lasted from 7 to 9 am. Afterwards, the workers returned to their posts while others went on to protest at the Santos Port Authority headquarters. It is now expected that a further 24-hour strike will take place this week, in case the Government doesn’t act by Tuesday.

The possible strike will be defined jointly with the National Federation of Port Workers (FNP), the National Federation of Dockers (FNE) and the National Federation of Repairers, Port Watchers, Block Workers, Ushers and Ship Tiers , in Port Activities (Fenccovib).

In January, the Ministry of Health included port workers in the priority group for vaccination against covid-19. But, so far, the vaccination schedule has not been released.

“The strike action is a result of the high number of workers dying and being infected,” said the president of the Union of Dockers of Santos and Region (Sindestiva), Bruno Santos.

The president of the Union of Employees in the Port Administration (Sindaport), Everandy Cirino dos Santos, stressed that the possibility of a national strike is great. “We will already see this as a given. And we need a date (of vaccination) that is close and not in November or December ”, he said.

Cirino also pointed out that port workers felt there is a lack of communication between deputies and councilors in the protest against the vaccine. And he highlighted the concern of the private sector in guaranteeing the immunization of port workers.

“Workers’ lives are being considered less important. We are going to set a date to strike, as required by law, providing notice in the newspapers, advising users of the port,” said Cirino.

Users

The strike will directly affect operations on public wharves. And the main fear is in relation to the mooring of ships. The information is from the executive director of the Union of Shipping Agencies of the State of São Paulo (Sindamar), José Roque.

“The operations that load or discharge commodities will be the most affected. We understand the port workers’ claim about the vaccination requirement, due to the exposure to which they are subjected, and this also extends to shipping agencies, since our staff are in contact with the captain, from the arrival of the ship, during its stay and upon departure, providing instructions originating from shipowners. And the vast majority are professionals aged between 25 and 40 years old, ”said Roque.

The National Federation of Port Operations (Fenop) pointed out that it has asked the Federal Government for priority in vaccinating port workers. According to the organization, several letters were sent and meetings were held on the topic.

The Ministry of Infrastructure reported that “it discusses the issues with the Ministry of Health, which is responsible for deciding about the possitlbe inclusion of port workers among the priority groups for vaccination against Covid-19. In parallel, it works in partnership with the Legislative sector to get port workers included in the bill recently voted on in the Lower House, which will soon be on the agenda of the Senate ”.

Source: A Tribuna

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