(en) FECh president statement on Chile port strike

Against bosses lies ---- Chilean Port workers in 14 northern and southern ports have been 
on strike, at various times, since late December 2013. The strike wave began in the 
northern Port of Angamos to continue the ongoing fight to win a paid half hour lunch break 
for port workers, for the integration of temporary workers into the union, and for reforms 
to the dictatorship-era labor law. The strike then hit other ports, with additional union 
members striking in support of the original demands and against the police brutality used 
against the Port of Angamos strikers. ---- Port workers are key to the flow of Chile's 
largest export, copper. 9,500 tons of copper flow through the country's ports every day. 
This strike is also happening just when Chile's agricultural producers are trying to get 
their summer crop to port, and is expected to cost fruit exporters $70 million per week.

There have been some sympathy actions from workers upstream in the capital flow, with 
miners at Chile's largest copper mine and workers in the forestry industry in the south 
taking action to cripple production.

The head of the bosses Confederation for Production and Commerce (an association 
"representing the Chilean business community") accused anarchists of pushing the strikes.


Responding to that accusation, Melissa Sep?lveda, President of the University of Chile 
Student Federation (FECh), and herself an anarchist and militant of the Frente de 
Estudiantes Libertarios and La Alzada, Acci?n Feminista Libertaria has issued the 
following statement, which "Ideas & Action" reprints below:

Quote:

In response to the statement given by the president of the Confederation of Production and 
Commerce (CPC), Andr?s Santa Cruz, which accuses anarchists of driving strikes in the 
country's ports, the president of the Student Federation of the University of Chile 
(FECh), Melissa Sep?lveda (who ran for office in the Luchar (Struggle) coalition composed 
of collectives in the anarchist current), replied that "workers can have political 
orientations, as he (Santa Cruz) has one too".
Melissa Sep?lveda said "using the term anarchist is a strategy that has been utilized for 
a long time, not only with port workers but now with the Mapuche communities. As a result, 
being afraid of the term anarchism, an ideological current and source of thought, makes no 
sense. The importance of what is being said in Chile is that workers' rights cannot be 
violated."

The student leader said that "the strike of dockworkers in Mejillones is completely legal 
and they are asking to be recognized as a union and to bargain collectively. The union 
also has many workers employed by the company as temporary workers. [The idea that 
Anarchists are driving the strikes] is a baseless accusation. I think that what is being 
experienced is something serious, a violation of the rights of workers, which is a problem 
that has been taking place for some time. Dockworkers have given an example of courage and 
organization in their push for the revision of the Chilean Labor Code - which doesn't 
allow unionization and makes it difficult to do collective bargaining" Sep?lveda said.

She added that "there has been an attempt to silence first the mobilization of dockworkers 
and on the other hand, caricature or demonize a mobilization that is legitimate and which 
fights for minimal conditions for Chilean workers".

Santa Cruz has argued that if dockworkers feel their rights are being violated, they 
should resort to the courts. However, Melissa Sepulveda has responded that "although I 
have had contact with port workers to show solidarity with them, I don't know what actions 
they are seeking to do to face the violation of their rights. Since the workers are in 
conflict with the companies, the State doesn't want to get involved. This results in 
justice always favoring the company, in this case Puerto Angamos. I think here you have to 
look to all alternatives to denounce what is happening with Chilean workers, not just 
demonstrations but also using appropriate legal action".

The president of the FECh said that "in 2013 the mobilization of dockworkers for a 
half-hour lunch time, we're talking half an hour to eat, that is a fundamental basic human 
right from the point of view of health, finally wasn't fulfilled and was replaced by a 
minimum bonus. There are minimum working conditions that are being violated in Chile, 
which have to be checked, not only by way of the demand of the organized sectors, but 
today the government must address what's going on with the workers".

Regarding the concern of the CPC that the shutdown is being performed at important moments 
in the export of fruits, the student leader said "well that's certainly a concern, and 
therefore, it is necessary to seek an early solution, and the Government must intervene 
and demonstrate so this loss will no longer occur. Workers only have these means to put 
pressure for such a basic demand as to be recognized as a trade union or a half-hour lunch 
time".



The translation has been provide by Gabriel, one of the Chilean comrades currently on a 
limited US speaking tour ( http://chilespeakingtour.wordpress.com )
- See more at:
http://ideasandaction.info/2014/01/fech-statement-on-chile-port-strike/#sthash.KM5odIkd.oq1raZoD.dpuf

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