Today, dockworkers in 22 countries will begin a strike, protesting against the war and the use of ports to export weapons.
This is reported by Reuters.
According to the organisers, the action could disrupt more than 40% of freight traffic in the Mediterranean and delay cargo worth more than $2 billion.
The strike, initiated by dockworkers’ unions in Italy, France, Greece, Spain’s Basque Country, Turkey and Morocco, has so far been backed by more than 25 unions across 113 ports.
The protest is expected to cover major transport hubs in Europe and beyond, including the ports of Hamburg, Valencia, Le Havre, Algeciras, Piraeus and Genoa, as well as the Tanger Med port in Morocco and Nhava Sheva in India.
At the same time, it remains unclear how many dockworkers will take part and how serious the disruption will be.
A representative of the Italian port of Genoa said they expect only a minor impact, while the port of Piraeus warned of possible disruption to ferry services to the Greek islands.
Among the union organisations joining the protest are Germany’s ver.di, Ireland’s largest union SIPTU, Denmark’s 3F, and France’s CGT Ports et Docks.
Outside Europe, organisers said operations at around a dozen ports in India could be disrupted; the action is also backed by the Water Transport Workers’ Federation of India (WTWFI).
The “Global Sumud Flotilla” (Global Sumud Flotilla) — a pro-Palestinian civil society group that has repeatedly tried to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip to deliver humanitarian aid — said it would carry out “co-ordinated strategic actions on the water” in support of the strike.