Container terminal workers get pay rise in deal following strike

On 17 July 2008, over 500 employees of the Constanţa South Container Terminal in Romania launched an indefinite strike, demanding pay increases and improved conditions. After 12 and a half days of protests and negotiations, an agreement on wage rises, annual leave and working time was reached between company management and the National Federation of Port Unions (Federaţia Naţională a Sindicatelor Portuare Constanţa, FNSP). The deal ended the strike and the employees resumed work.

Background to the strike

Constanţa South Containers Terminal (CSCT) is part of Dubai Ports World. It provides 85% of the container-handling operations in the port of Constanţa, on the Black Sea coast, and in 2007 made a profit of €12 million. CSCT has 540 employees.

For several months running up to July 2008, members of the National Federation of Port Unions (Federaţia Naţională a Sindicatelor Portuare Constanţa, FNSP) at CSCT made a number of demands to management, notably ‘a pay rise of RON 700 per month for each employee, a 30% rise in bonuses, the payment of length-of-service benefits and hazardous working conditions benefits, an increase in annual leave entitlement, a stable working schedule (due to the fact that the employees are called into work by phone, only when the company needs them)’.

The only claim that CSCT management agreed to grant was a monthly pay raise of RON 375 per employee. Consequently, after having staged a warning strike, FNSP notified the management 48 hours in advance, in line with the law, that with effect from 17 July the terminal’s worker s would launch an indefinite strike.

The union leadership explained the reasons behind the strike decision: ‘One cannot let them [the employer] think that they can come to Romania and hire dock workers for RON 2, though Romanian workers are as efficient as those in western European countries, where, for example in Germany, they are paid thousands of euros.’

Course of the strike

On the first day of the action, 17 July, over 100 morning shift workers reported for duty but refused to start work. Organised by trade union officials, they started chanting slogans addressed to the management.

On 21 July, other trade unions in the Constanţa port joined the container terminal workers, thereby increasing the number of protesters to some 1,500.

The National Trade Union Block (Blocul Naţional Sindical, BNS), a national trade union confederation, expressed its solidarity with the terminal workers, because, it said, ‘a strike was the only solution for the port workers, after not having been able, for five months in a row, to bargain an acceptable compromise with the management’.

BNS supported the CSCT workers’ demands for pay rises, an extra three days of annual leave, length-of-service benefits, and benefits in respect of arduous and hazardous working conditions (amounting to 10% of the minimum gross basic wage, in accordance with the provisions of the collective agreement for the transport sector).

After the first week of the strike, the leadership of another national trade union confederation, the National Trade Union Confederation Cartel Alfa (Confederaţia Naţională Sindicală Cartel Alfa, Cartel Alfa), stated about the situation: ‘We cannot possibly accept that huge profits are made without any incentive for the workers, who are treated like slaves at the beck and call of troubled-waters profiteers’.

Cartel Alfa demanded an emergency fact-finding inspection by the Labour Inspectorate (Inspecţia Muncii, IM) into the operations of CSCT, alleging breaches of the Labour Code, including the use of illegal work during the strike.

End of strike

After 12 and half days of strike, and after three days of collective bargaining, CSCT management and the FNSP trade union agreed on the following compromise solution:

• A two-stage monthly pay rise of RON 650, with increases of RON 475 from 1 July 2008 and RON 175 from 1 January 2009;

• A minimum company wage rate of RON 1,800 per month by the end of 2008;

• One extra day of annual leave;

• A regular working schedule of 12 hours in each 24 or 48 hours.

In respect of the claim for length-of-service benefit, the trade union will take the matter to court.

The leader of FNSP said: ‘the first to gain from this will be the company itself, because the workers will be more motivated, better fed, healthier, more devoted and more faithful to the company, and this will boost work efficiency and profits’.

Commentary

The pay raise obtained by the CSCT workers, though apparently high (with a minimum pay rate at company level of RON 1,800 per month, compared with the national minimum wage of RON 540 per month), is arguably well deserved by dock workers, due to the strenuous nature of their work and the difficult working conditions in ports and harbours.

However, the wages of Romanian dock workers continue to be among the lowest in this sector in the EU.

Chivu Luminita, Institute of National Economy, Romanian Academy