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Google free translation service: Deutsch, Français, Español, Italiano, Português - About these links News onlinePort workers’ deaths prompt unions’ call for safety 22 January 2008 The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) has called on the European Commission to consider health and safety (H&S) as top priorities within the EU port policy. This is the core message of an ETF statement that follows the deadly accident that killed two stevedores in the port of Porto Marghera on 18 January, the most recent case in a series of fatalities triggering serious concerns over safety on the docks.The ETF is also addressing the EU member states, responsible for the enhancement and the proper application of existing H&S rules at both Community and national level. “The improvement and intensification of inspections, the enhancement and extension of training to all workers and the creation of a culture of prevention” are essential instruments to counteract working risks at ports, says the ETF. Last Friday, two stevedores aged 39 and 47 died of apparent asphyxiation while cleaning the hold of the Panamanian flagged “World Trader” from its load of soya at the Centro Intermodale Adriatico terminal in Porto Marghera, Venice. Reports tell that both workers collapsed in the airless ship hold at around 1.30. The lack of oxygen might have been caused by the contact of heavy rainwater, which had entered the hold during the night, with the soya residues. Other two colleagues tried to help but, realizing they were also in danger of fainting, they left the ship and raised the alarm. The firemen ascertained that the workers were dead. Spontaneous port stoppages after the accident were strengthened by the call for a joint national port strike by the Italian transport unions (Filt-Cgil, Fit-Cisl and Uiltrasporti) during the weekend. They are demanding the extension of the framework law on safety - currently applied on the basis of local agreements in the ports of Genoa, Ravenna and Naples - to all Italian ports. While Italian workers’ representatives continue to analyze the situation and the steps to be taken, the ETF urges the European Commission to give an early European response to health and safety matters on the docks. “It is not acceptable that a sector vital for EU economy, such as ports, which shows high growth rates, is not able to guarantee adequate safety to people who, through their work, contribute to such a growth. Productivity growth cannot be reached to the detriment of safety”, stresses the ETF in its statement.
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