Piraeus is Greece’s largest port, just six miles from Athens. Last June, the Chinese shipping company China Ocean Shipping Co., or Cosco, took full control of its container terminals, leasing it for 35 years for almost $5 billion.
Piraeus port workers say the working conditions on the Chinese-run side of the terminal include a 50% pay reduction, no breaks, and being on call 24 hours a day.
Cosco doesn’t allow unions or collective bargaining among its 500-plus Greek workers. The unions report that Cosco workers are largely unskilled and working on a temporary basis, with no benefits. Despite persistent rumors about their labor conditions, until now no Cosco workers have spoken out to the media.
But a former Cosco worker, who had just been sacked, spoke to NPR about work conditions on the Chinese-run pier, on the condition that his name not be used. The worker says he regularly worked eight hours a day with no meal breaks and no toilet breaks.
“I think their actions are breaking the law,” the worker said. “The rights are to have something to eat around 12 o’clock [and] to have our breaks, and not work like a dog straight [through] from morning till afternoon.”
He says workers were told by supervisors to urinate into the sea, rather than taking toilet breaks. Those operating straddle carriers had to take cups up into their cabins to urinate into, and he says they were not given breaks, either, despite the clear dangers of operating at such a height for so long.
"Chinese go home" grafitti in Greece. Some fear the Chinese labor model will spread.
The worker says he was paid 600 euros a month — about 50 euros each shift — around half the salary at the neighboring Greek-operated pier, with no extra money for working night shifts or weekends. There was no set schedule; he was kept on 24-hour call for nine months.
His wife says the experience changed his personality. “In the end, it was like a nervous breakdown,” she says, gazing at him with concern. “All day he was just waiting to see whether they would call. He didn’t know if he had time to eat or to sleep. Sometimes they would ring in the night to tell him to go to work. It was like torture.”
“What we do believe is that Cosco is importing the Chinese labor model to Greece,” says Nick Georgiou, president of the dockworkers union. “The result is that companies not run by the Chinese are being influenced by what the Chinese are doing in lowering the labor costs and reducing workers’ rights.”