Abstract
Abstract Automation represents a sensitive issue in the debate between social actors of the port-maritime industry. Automation produced a contraction of the number of dockworkers since the 1960s. However, the idea that technological innovation will produce the disappearance of work is not sustained by empirical evidence. For this reason, trade unions have been particularly watchful. Despite the discourses about robotization carried out by supply chain operators, the paradigm of the post-COVID logistics chain is still based upon the human labor cost. During the pandemic there has been a transformation in working conditions not in terms of replacing people with robots, but rather of the robotization of workers to obtain the maximum productive exploitation at the minimum wage allowed. The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of labor relations and workers organizing in light of the automation processes in the European port of Antwerp. The article focuses on how working conditions and jobs are potentially impacted by automation in ports, and on how workers disruptive strategies are resisting to these dynamics. The following questions have been answered: How do trade unions and dockworkers respond to automation? What are the strategies implemented in the bargaining processes?
Highlights
The transport of goods is one of the crucial industries of the global economy
The following questions have been answered: How do trade unions and dockworkers respond to automation? What are the strategies implemented in the bargaining processes?
This article tries to fill this gap by answering the following research question: How do trade unions and dockworkers respond to automation, and what are the strategies implemented in the bargaining processes?
Summary
The port of Antwerp is among the top European logistics hubs, located in the Rhine-Scheldt Delta, the largest port region in Europe in terms of volume. In Belgium, ports are currently regulated by the so-called Major Act (June 1972) which stipulates that only recognized dockworkers are entitled to work in the port area.1 This means that all cargo handling activities, goods entering or leaving the port, and services related to these goods must be treated by registered port workers from the labor pool, with a few exceptions. All port employers operating within the geographical borders of the port of Antwerp are obliged to employ the recognized workforce from the labor pool for all port activities They are obliged to join the Centrale des Employeurs au port d’Anvers (CEPA). CEPA was set up in 1929, is in charge of managing personnel and salary payments for all the dockworkers recognized in the port of Antwerp, and is engaged in collective bargaining with the trade unions. In the words of the director of CEPA Guy Vankrunkelsven (Interview n. 06, October 15, 2016), the joint committee is “an institution that controls if things are going in the right and same way within a sector, with the supervision of the government.” In homage to a rooted tradition and path dependent institutions such as CEPA and the joint subcommittee, economic and social actors are involved in negotiations that ensure a shared agreement which would safeguard, at least in principle, market efficiency, and social peace
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