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[Note: The following article is reprinted from the March 2004
issue of The Dispatcher, the official monthly newspaper of the
International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). It cannot be
reposted or distributed until it has appeared in The Dispatcher,
which does not return from the printer's till next Tuesday.]
Bangladesh dockers resist SSA port privatization
by Tom Price
The Chittagong Port Workers' Union knew they were in for a long fight
when they heard in 1997 that Stevedoring Services of America had cut a
deal with their government to build a huge private terminal at their
port. The two parties signed the agreement in 1998, and since then
dockers have fought it to a standstill with strikes, demonstrations and
court battles. But if the project is built, it would undermine unions
contracts with the public port and threaten the Bangladeshi dockers
union's very existence. Now the union is asking for international
support, beginning with a workers' conference in Chittagong March 18-19.
The Port of Chittagong sits on the banks of the Karnafuli River, about
nine nautical miles upriver from the Bay of Bengal in one of the poorest
countries on earth. The half-billion dollar terminal SSA wants to build
would make SSA the main player in that country's trade. Its location
would effectively block much of the public port's traffic and its huge
capacity would suck up most of its work. According to the union, this
would have enormous social consequences.
"The main center of Bangladesh's communication and trade with the
outside world is supposed to become the private property of a U.S.
multinational which will be free to hire, dismiss and impose its rules
on Bangladeshi workers," General Secretary Shariat Ullah said in an
appeal for international support. "No job will be secure. Previous
[union] contracts will no longer operate."
With a public facility workers' rights as citizens in a parliamentary
democracy give them some input to governmental decision-making. But with
an anti-union, foreign corporation in control only answerable to its
owners, citizens will have little chance of affecting corporate
decisions. Without a union, dockers would become casual employees.
Union members objected to SSA taking over most of the work in
Bangladesh's main port largely because of that company's anti-union
attitude. Longshore Local 10 Executive Board member Clarence Thomas
attended the Dec. 6-7 All-Asia Workers' Conference Against Privatization
and Deregulation in India with the Chittagong dockers, and SSA was on
the agenda.
"SSA was one of the most belligerent of PMA member companies at the
ILWU-PMA negotiations in 2002," Thomas told the conference.
"They're outsourcing our jobs at the same time they are privatizing
Chittagong."
The company has a cozy enough relationship with the Bush administration
to have won a no bid contract to run the docks at Umm Qsar in occupied
Iraq. Its officials also met with the Oakland Police before the April 7
demonstration against war profiteering at which police opened fire with
"less-than-lethal weapons on demonstrators and longshore workers.
Chittagong's workers began their fight in 1997, as soon as they heard of
the pending agreement with SSA. By July 2001 they had shut the port down
a total of 33 days with protests, according to The Cargo Letter,
an industry journal. The government called off the plan after a
three-day strike July 7, 2001, and it looked like the scheme might
founder.
But the U.S. government intervened. U.S. Ambassador Mary Ann Peters
bluntly warned Bangladesh in September 2002 that U.S. investment would
be imperiled if SSA didn't get the terminal, according to the Bangladesh
magazine The Holiday. The 50,000 port workers continued
demonstrations and hunger strikes. They formed a coalition with the port
and Chittagong Mayor Mohiuddin Chowdhury, and took the government to
court.
The coalition won a major round last May 19 when Bangladesh's Supreme
Court found that the government's deal with SSA was illegal. The court
ruled the government had bypassed the jurisdiction of the Port
Authority. The government granted the lease in "an arbitrary
manner, withoutŠa competitive bidding procedure through public
auction," the ruling said.
The decision also exposed how one-sided the deal was-in SSA's favor.
"The agreement gave SSA a 198-year lease on the land,"
National Workers Federation President Tafazzul Hussain told Local 10's
Thomas. "Even under British rule it was only 99 years. All rights
would remain with SSA, all rules will be SSA's rules, there will be no
Bangladesh rules applied to that port. Only a small royalty would be
given to the country."
Since the court decision the Port of Chittagong secured loans and bought
nine new yard cranes, according to a Feb. 19 Journal of Commerce
report. Planned new construction will raise the annual capacity to 1.2
million TEUs. This increased capacity will help ease port congestion and
could make the SSA plan unnecessary, though SSA is still trying to build
the private port.
Meanwhile the dockers are globalizing their struggle. Their delegation
to the Dec. 6-7 conference explained their struggle to the 85 attendees,
and invited them to a March 18-19 convention to find ways to save the
port. Local 10's Clarence Thomas will attend the convention.
"We are calling the convention to save our ports, save Chittagong
and save our country," Hussain said.
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