Brazilian dockers set to fire third salvo in Legislation war

Dockers unions have been simmering with resentment over MP 595 since it was launched in early December, 2012, and promised strike action “as soon as Carnival [which ran from February 8th to 17th this year] was over”.

They didn’t wait long to fire the first salvo when 50 dock workers boarded the heavylift vessel Zhen Hua 10 berthed in Santos in a dawn raid and halted the unloading of three ZPMC STS quay cranes and 11 RTGs destined for the new Reais1.2bn (US$610.4m) multi-purpose Embraport terminal.

After almost two days the 50 dock workers (mostly from the OGMO casual labour pool) were escorted of the Chinese vessel but not before extracting promises from government officials and a “one-off” agreement with Embraport that OGMO would “monitor” the Embraport facility despite it being in a private terminal.