Death on the Docks in Europe

Unions Must Fight for Job Safety!

The following is an edited translation of an article from Spartakist No. 214 (Fall 2016), newspaper of the Spartakist-Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, German section of the International Communist League.

In the past few years, fatal accidents have been on the rise at container terminals in Europe. According to the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF), in 2015 workplace deaths were reported at ports in Belgium (Antwerp), Spain (Bilbao and Valencia), Germany (Bremerhaven), Finland (Helsinki), Sweden (Oxelösund) and Portugal (Sines). These are in addition to injuries that can leave workers totally incapacitated, not to mention the increase in debilitating and exhausting work-related stress. In a phenomenon typical of capitalism—a crisis of overproduction—the shipowners have been building ever-larger container ships despite a weakening of world trade, thereby creating massive overcapacity. Now the shipping companies want to preserve their profits via massive “cost reductions,” i.e., making seamen and dock workers pay the bill.

For the shipping companies and port operators, workplace injuries and deaths are collateral damage in their quest for higher profits, reflecting the brutal reality of the relationship between the working class and the capitalists. Workers, including those who are somewhat better paid, must sell their labor power in order to live, whereas the capitalists, who own the means of production, extract their profits from workers’ labor. How much profit the capitalists can extract from the workers is determined by the struggle between the working class and the capitalists. In addition to limiting pay raises or even slashing wages, the bosses seek to increase the number of workdays, to make them longer and to push speedup. Trade unions should be the defense organizations of the workers, fighting not just for higher wages and benefits but also for better working conditions and against increasing labor “flexibility.” The fight for better workplace safety could strengthen the unions, especially in industry and logistics.

Ports are strategic junctions of international trade, critical for the economy and for the bourgeoisie of industrialized countries. German imperialism, with its heavy reliance on industrial exports, is dependent on the functioning of its ports. Hamburg and Bremerhaven along with Rotterdam in Holland and Antwerp in Belgium are particularly important. The German bourgeoisie has ratcheted up the rate of exploitation of the working class through the creation of a large low-wage sector, using these super-profits to expand its leading position as an exporter. German capitalism dominates Europe, bleeds dry the working class in smaller countries and oppresses those countries via the imperialist European Union (EU). At the same time, this means that dock workers internationally hold tremendous potential social power in their hands. Given their role in the economy, dock workers and seamen should understand their power to bring the capitalist profit system to a halt. What stands in the way are the nationalist and protectionist policies of the bureaucratic trade-union leadership, which has pledged fealty to the bosses.

The worldwide attacks by shipowners and port companies along with the accidents affecting dock workers led the two umbrella organizations of dock worker unions, the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) and IDC (International Dockworkers Council), to carry out a joint “Global Day of Action” on July 7, seeking to “draw attention to their work situation” and “create a clearly visible signal for healthy and secure jobs,” as well as to commemorate those dock workers who had died on the job. While there was a one-hour work stoppage in some ports, as in Le Havre, France (as well as on the U.S. West Coast), in others there were only short interruptions. Though this Day of Action did not significantly affect shipping, it symbolically demonstrated the potential of international dock worker solidarity. Effective international class struggle is necessary to resist the murderous chase after profits in the ports and aboard the ships. French dock workers showed their power when, beginning on May 24, they struck the oil terminals at Le Havre and Marseille for over two weeks. This action was in solidarity with the strike of the refinery workers and many others against the anti-union El Khomri law, a strike that paralyzed virtually all of France.

Deadly Industrial Accidents in Hamburg and Bremerhaven

The preventable death of 37-year-old Bülent Benli shines a light on the situation of the dock workers. Employed as a lasher, he was killed on 10 October 2014 while he was in a “lasher basket” (a cage for transporting personnel between the dock and the ship) at the Burchardkai terminal of Hamburg Port and Logistics Inc. (HHLA). Bülent Benli was a casual, working day to day without a fixed work contract, and had gotten the job through the dock worker dispatching agency Gesamthafenbetrieb (GHB). His death must be laid at the feet of the HHLA bosses, who make their huge profits at the expense of on-the-job safety. The City of Hamburg owns around 70 percent of HHLA. Burchardkai is the largest container terminal in Hamburg and a showpiece terminal, one of the great pearls among the treasures of the Hamburg moneybags, who still use day laborers just as they did 100 years ago.

As dock workers told us, there are various procedures and security equipment, any one of which could have prevented Bülent Benli’s death, but which are not in use at Burchardkai. Lashers there have to use hand signals to “communicate” with crane operators 125 feet or more above them, as if it were the Middle Ages. Conditions would be safer if there were a radio link between lashers and the crane operators and if there were an additional worker who could communicate when the lashers are busy. The crane operators at Burchardkai also lack a standard safety feature, which, when engaged, automatically limits the speed of the lash basket when people are being transported. The HHLA bosses would rather skimp on the expense of safe procedures, which would require more personnel and equipment and would decrease profits. Instead they prefer to play with the lives of the lashers.

Lashers secure containers to ships and other containers using twistlocks and turnbuckles. In the play Tallymann un Schutenschubser [Tallyman and Barge Pusher], which is set in Hamburg, a former seaman and harbor worker characterizes the lashers as “the gold of the coast.” Volker Ippig, former goalkeeper for the Hamburg soccer team FC St. Pauli and also a casual and lasher, stated in a 28 June 2009 interview with the newspaper Die Tageszeitung (taz): “When you’re pulling the twistlocks fast as hell, then things really move. You can’t hold out doing this for hours, just for a certain period. Hard work? Yes. But good work, decent work.” Lashing is the most dangerous and hardest work in the port. The terminal operators save money by employing workers from small, low-wage lashing outfits. And even though companies like GHB pay the union contract rate, lashers are always on pay scales much lower than crane operators and other port workers.

An additional factor in Bülent Benli’s death was that he was dispatched to the job even though he had worked only a few weeks as a lasher and had not been adequately trained. The GHB website nonetheless boasts: “Crucial to GHB’s success is its highly skilled workforce. That is why we place the highest value on initial and continuous training. We offer top training opportunities in all our fields.” Nice words from the bosses, but the union had better see to it that the jobs are safe and that workers receive the necessary initial and ongoing training.

Another fatal accident occurred on 14 May 2015 at Bremerhaven’s North Sea Terminal (NTB), when an undetected crack led to a crane boom collapsing, killing the 52-year-old crane operator, Volker Hermann, who was buried beneath it. Regular, adequate inspections could have prevented this accident. Why wasn’t this crack discovered earlier and couldn’t similar accidents occur on other cranes? An article in the February 2015 issue of Verkehrsreport [Transport Report], journal of the trade union ver.di, alludes to Hermann’s colleagues’ fear of more such accidents, but the article gives no perspective for a fight by the union. Instead, the paper uncritically recounts how the harbor police have assumed “responsibility for uncovering the facts.” But the police will always “investigate” in the interest of the bosses. The police and courts are central parts of the capitalist state and protect its system of exploitation.

Trade-union actions could have ensured that similar cranes would be examined at the known weak points. The death of one dock worker in Bremerhaven due to a crane component failure was obviously not seen by other terminal companies as any reason to inspect their own cranes. When crane operators at various Hamburg terminals expressed their justified anger, the situation was smoothed over by management while the trade-union tops maintained silence. Thus, less than a year later, on March 11, there was an accident similar to the one in Bremerhaven. An undiscovered crack led to a boom “draw bar” dangling from a crane at the container terminal Altenwerder (CTA, the automated terminal in Hamburg operated by HHLA and Hapag-Lloyd), fortunately without serious consequences. To keep their business running smoothly, the capitalists lied to the workers. Safe operation of container cranes demands frequent, extremely detailed inspections. Ver.di must fight for the implementation of appropriate safety measures, including by carrying out job actions if necessary.

While the collapse of the crane boom in Bremerhaven received wide media coverage, generally the port bosses do everything they can to keep news of major accidents (even when there is a death) from reaching the workforce, let alone the public. When Uwe Kröger, a 45-year-old crane operator, suffered a fatal heart attack while working at Eurogate Hamburg on 31 December 2009, it took an hour and a half for medical assistance to arrive, according to Rolf Geffken (labor lawyer and author of Arbeit und Arbeitskampf im Hafen [Labor and Labor Struggle on the Docks]). It takes considerable effort to retrieve a dead or severely injured worker from a container crane. A special rescue team is needed to lower him down with ropes, but there isn’t such a team in the whole Hamburg container terminal! Aside from first-aid workers, there are no emergency workers at the terminals, and the nearest hospital emergency rooms are far away. When Kröger’s widow pressed charges and asked for the dangerous conditions to be investigated, she was insulted by the company. Later the newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt printed a full-page article glorifying the crane operator’s cabin as a “sky box,” without even mentioning the death of the worker. Geffken responded in an interview with Junge Welt (11 October 2011): “In the Hamburg media there’s something like a conspiracy of silence when such an accident occurs.” The Hamburg capitalists, who cover up such accidents, control the bourgeois media, which refrains from any critical reporting and instead prettifies the wretched conditions.

For a Class-Struggle Union Leadership!

Serious and fatal accidents also happen with straddle carriers, huge machines that move the containers at the terminals and load them onto trucks. On 30 November 2015, straddle carrier driver Kai Weinhold was killed at the Eurogate terminal in Bremerhaven when his vehicle overturned. Tipping over, crashing into another vehicle and even catching on fire are not uncommon. Speedup, bad pavement conditions, inadequate lighting, antiquated or untested new technology, along with failures to conduct scheduled maintenance and inspections, lead to life-threatening injuries and even to death. Harbor work is one of the most dangerous jobs, but under these intolerable conditions, otherwise preventable accidents leading to mutilation or death are inevitable: it’s industrial murder! With their round-the-clock operations, the harbor bosses are more concerned with operating their equipment at full capacity than about safety inspections and maintenance schedules.

Blaming individual workers for causing accidents by not adhering to safety rules is standard practice for the bosses. It is the duty of the trade unions to collectively shield their members from the immense pressure they are under to “get the job done” without interruptions. Workers are forced into a vicious circle: either they are disciplined by the company for pointing out too many safety problems, or they risk their health or even their lives by ignoring safety instructions. For the workers to protect themselves, the collective strength of the unions must be brought to bear. What is needed is a determined and continuous struggle to establish and maintain safe working conditions, especially given changing conditions in the port. Workers and the union must have control over job safety. The unions and factory councils must demonstrate that they are capable of shutting down the whole operation in the event of danger. Safe working conditions require constant vigilance and struggle against the bosses. Union control instead of confidence in the bosses! Harbor workers need their own union safety committees, with representatives who have the right to stop unsafe work immediately on the spot. The question of safety on the job touches directly the opposing class interests of workers and capitalists. Safe working conditions for dock workers means less profit for the shipowners and terminal operators. A fight for safe equipment, safe work procedures and adequate training is counterposed to the interests of the capitalists. Thus, awareness that the workers are in irreconcilable class conflict with the capitalists is needed.

In 1934, American longshoremen, with a class-struggle leadership, successfully struck West Coast ports, laying the basis for the forging of the powerful West Coast longshore union, the ILWU. The strike resulted in key gains, including in regard to safety. In disputes over safety, individual ILWU members covered by the master longshore contract have the contractual right to “stand by” (stop work) until the issue is resolved. But just as in Germany, such gains are continually subject to assault by the bosses; as with ver.di, the ILWU has a lengthy history of agreeing to giveback contracts. For a detailed depiction of how struggles were fought to a victory see our pamphlet Then and Now.

What is necessary is a class-struggle union leadership, but the present leadership of German unions stands under the political control of the social democracy. Both the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Left Party are bourgeois workers parties—they have a working-class base but a bourgeois, capitalist program. They promote reliance on the institutions of capitalism and its state even when the safety of workers is at stake. Instead, workers need a revolutionary multiethnic workers party independent of the bosses. And they need a union leadership that understands that the interests of the workers and bosses are directly counterposed and mobilizes the power of the union. Strong class-struggle unions are a necessary counterweight to the capitalist bosses. But as long as society is in the hands of the capitalists and centered on maximizing profit, any victories will only be transitory. Only when workers take state power into their own hands and smash the profit system will it be possible to bring about genuine, lasting safety in the workplace and, moreover, to satisfy the material needs of all mankind.