Dan O’Rourke is a member of the Socialist Party (ISA in Ireland).
Cost cutting and the potential for disaster …
Workers at the Panama Canal in Central America have come under brutal attack from local police during a protest for safer working conditions. The workers are demanding their employer, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), hire more workers to ensure greater safety. Demands for safer working conditions go back to 2016. Cost cutting efforts by the ACP has seen an unsafe drop in crew numbers. In June 2019, 13 union workers were suspended or threatened with suspension without pay for raising concerns.
Similar to the Suez Canal in the Middle East, the Panama canal is a crucial, artificial shipping channel. It connects the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the most essential links in the global supply chain. The canal is only 82km long but saves ships a journey of almost 13,000km. Nearly 14,000 transits were made in 2020. The canal generates 12% of Panama’s GDP.
The workers are protesting against unsafe working hours – up to 14 hours or more. Workers have been unable to use the toilet or take rest breaks. There is the risk of the canal becoming blocked in a similar manner to the Suez Canal as a result of fatigue. Despite a number of fatigue related incidents, including one death, the workload has only intensified.
Most sea ports and shipping companies fall under the control of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) hours of service rules. However, the ACP argues that the Canal is not subject to international regulation because it is an internal waterway. Consequently, the company has no upper limit to the number of working hours.
Negotiations for safer working conditions are not going well according to the La Unión de Capitanes y Oficiales de Cubierta (UCOC). The canal authorities are said to be acting in “bad faith.”
On April 29, 2021, tug boat captains, represented by UCOC, staged a protest in Panama City. The peaceful protest was met with extreme violence from police who fired tear gas. Gunshots were also alleged to have been fired. Several union members were arrested during the course of the attack.
In a short video clip shown on social media, a phalanx of about 70 riot police can be seen advancing on a small group of protesters. The group scatters when tear gas is fired. A smaller group of riot police approach from the side and begin firing crowd control weapons and beating a number of people. The person who took the video allegedly works for the Canal de Panamá and can be heard laughing at and mocking the protestors. The video was shot from the safety of the upper stories of the Canal de Panamá offices.
Violence condemned by the International Transport Workers Federation
The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), with whom UCOC is affiliated, has come out strongly against the violence and called for the workers’ demands to be met. “Internationally, we are shocked to see these images and learn of the violence being meted out on the tug workers in Panama. The canal authorities, police and government leaders must understand that these waterways are under a major spotlight following the events in the Suez earlier this year. The world is very much watching,” said ITF’s Inland Navigation Section coordinator Fabrizio Barcellona.
Cost cutting and the potential for disaster
Cost cutting efforts have been the hallmark of the canal since the lowest bidder won the project to widen it. Costs were kept down by minimising the amount of concrete and steel. The tug boats themselves are the cheapest possible and described as “perfectly awful,” by Iván de la Guardia, the head of the tugboat captains’ union. Interestingly, the canal administrator’s son now works for the company that made the tugs.
Climate change will also represent a significant threat to the safe running of the canal. Floods, droughts or high winds risk halting global trades. Unless the workers expertise is listened to and concerns are addressed, a major blockage of the canal is almost inevitable.
The potential power of shipping and logistics workers.
The conflict at Panama highlights the potential power of logistics workers and the vulnerabilities of a profit driven system. This problem is likely to increase as shipping companies, canal authorities and ports attempt to squeeze as much profit as possible from the labour of their employees.
However, a relatively small number of logistics workers have the power to bring global trade to a halt by calling a strike. The determination and ability of the workers to improve safety at the canal for the good of all, shows that workers are more than capable of running and maintaining infrastructure like this on their own terms.
Building the solidarity links between logistics workers internationally is an urgent task in helping them to win.
To that end, International Socialist Alternative sends solidarity to the workers in Panama fighting for safer working conditions and basic human requirements such as toilet breaks and rests.
