Interim Report - Report No 233, March 1984

Case No 1213 (Greece) - Complaint date: 15-JUN-83 - Closed

1. 593. The Panhellenic Union of Mechanics in the Merchant Marine (PEMEN-PENEM) submitted a complaint alleging violation of freedom of association in Greece in a telegram dated 15 June 1983. On 13 July, it provided documentation containing additional information in support of its complaint; it also sent this information to the Secretary-General of the United Nations in New York, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the Director-General of the International Labour Office. Finally, the PEMEN-PENEM sent telegrams containing new allegations on 19 August and 23 September 1983.
2. 594. The Government sent its observations in a communication of 10 October 1983.
3. 595. Greece has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. The complainant's allegations

1. 596. In its initial telegram of 15 June 1983, the Panhellenic Union of Mechanics in the Merchant Marine denounces the attack, which it considers totally unjustified, that the harbour police and police authorities allegedly made against the President of the PEMEN (the Union of Mechanics) Mr. Thanasis Stamatopoulos and its Treasurer Mr. Nicos Stefanis, and against the President of the PENEM (the Dockers' Union) Mr. Gerasimos Destounis and its Secretary-General Mr. Stelios Sevastakis, whilst they were carrying out a 24-hour token strike of Greek coastal vessels.
2. 597. These trade union leaders, as well as 13 strikers, had allegedly been beaten with cudgels, arrested and imprisoned. The Secretary-General, Mr. Sevastakis, had even had to be admitted to hospital.
3. 598. According to the complainant, this brutal action on the part of the authorities was aimed at breaking the coastal vessels' strike of 15 June 1983 and the 48-hour token strike declared between the 15 and 30 June 1983 on cruise ships and ocean-going vessels.
4. 599. In a later communication dated 13 July 1983, the Presidents of the PEMEN and PENEM provided more detailed information on this matter.
5. 600. They explain that the General Assemblies of the two unions had voted for the strike in June 1983 for two reasons: firstly, because the previous collective agreement covering their activities had expired on 30 September 1982 and the employers refused to renew it; and secondly, because a bill, aiming to lower Greek seafarers' wages and working conditions and to make it possible to dismiss them, had just been brought before Parliament.
6. 601. The main aspects of the bill in question concerned the ratification of bilateral agreements signed between the Union of Greek Shipowners (EEE) and some trade unions in Third World countries, the reduction of crews on board ships and the 2.5 per cent check-off of seafarers' paid leave benefits.
7. 602. The complainant explains that the bilateral agreements with which the Greek seafarers' disagree grant very low wages ($70 per month) to foreign seafarers. Signing-on conditions (food, accommodation, etc.) are much lower than those of Greek seafarers; consequently, in November 1982, 11,500 Greek seafarers were unemployed and 12,000 foreign seamen were employed on Greek ships.
8. 603. With respect to the reduction of crew members, the complainant considers that such measures, already taken in 1978, will only serve to increase unemployment and the further deterioration of safety conditions on Greek ships, which already hold the world records for accidents and shipwrecks.
9. 604. The complainant gives detailed information on the reprisals taken against the strikers. It explains that not only were they dismissed, beaten with cudgels, imprisoned and sentenced, but that some of them were even entered on black lists.
10. 605. For instance, in New Orleans (Louisiana, United States), ten trade unionists were forbidden to land on United States territory and to board a ship entering an American port. According to the complainant, no ship will recruit these trade unionists any more because, if they did so, they would automatically be prevented from entering an American harbour.
11. 606. Some seamen were dismissed for having taken part in this two-day token strike in June 1983 whilst they were in different ports throughout the world; apart from the ports in the United States already mentioned, these included ports in Algeria, the Ivory Coast, Belgium and the Netherlands.
12. 607. In Rhodes, although the captain wanted to continue the voyage and had recruited strike breakers for the purpose, the strikers succeeded in preventing the ship from leaving the harbour. The seamen threw themselves into the sea and swam as far as the propeller; a little before, a member of the harbour authorities had pushed one of the strikers who did not know how to swim into the sea; he was rescued in time by another seaman.
13. 608. The complainant communicated further information in a telegram of 19 August 1983. It states that on that very day, it had called a second 48-hour token strike to claim wage and bonus increases as, two days previously, there had been a breakdown in negotiations with the shipowners who, according to the complainant, allegedly had governmental backing. In a second telegram of 23 September 1983, it points out that an action would be brought before the Piraeus Court on 28 September 1983 and that the trade union leaders arrested on 19 August, the first day of the second 48-hour token strike, were liable to five-year prison sentences.

B. The Government's reply

1. 609. On 10 October 1983, the Government sent a copy of a communication dated 12 August 1983 and signed by the Minister of the Merchant Marine, in which the latter replies to a petition made to him by various eminent Greek persons on this matter.
2. 610. The Minister explains that during the 48-hour strike called by PEMEN-PENEM, trade unionists of both organisations were gathered either at Akti Tzelepi or on board several coastal vessels alongside the quay in order to maintain their strike. At the beginning, they tried to influence the seamen and engine-room ratings to join them in, the strike.
3. 611. On the evening of 15 June 1983, when the vehicles and• passengers arrived to board the vessels, some strikers gathered to try and prevent them and have the voyage cancelled.
4. 612. There were enough non-strikers amongst the crew on board the ships ready to leave to conform with safety conditions; however, according to the Minister, the strikers wished to create such an atmosphere that the non-strikers might decide to join the strike.
5. 613. The ferry-boat Kydon, moored alongside the Tzelepi quay, was about to leave for Crete but some of the strikers prevented the boarding. The Piraeus port authorities and the harbour master appealed in vain to the strikers to free the way to the vessels.
   • Other strikers, mingled with the crowd, hurled slogans through loudspeakers in support of their cause and against the authorities who, they claimed, were persecuting them. This allegedly led to tension in the atmosphere and stirred up events.
6. 614. The minister continues by explaining that the authorities, confronted with these provocations from the strikers and the growing crowd which was sympathetic to them, avoided taking any untimely action; they did not make the strikers free the access to the vessels or arrest those insulting them.
7. 615. Anxious to remain within the law, the authorities summoned the Penal Prosecuter, Mr. Roussos, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr. Bramis. The former convened the President of the PEMEN, Mr. Stamatopoulos, and the Secretary-General of PENEM, Mr. Stevastakis, and explained to them that the strikers were committing an offence because they were preventing the passengers and vehicles from boarding. He also instructed the Director of Public Prosecutions to ask the strikers to withdraw immediately and to warn them that, if they refused, they would be arrested. The Prosecuter, accompanied by the Piraeus harbour authorities advanced towards the ferry-boat and requested the strikers to withdraw. The latter continued to hurl insults at the harbour authorities and the Prosecuter then gave the order to arrest them.
8. 616. When the harbour authorities proceeded to arrest the strikers, the latter attacked them, struggling to avoid arrest and lightly injuring two harbour employees.
9. 617. In total 17 persons were arrested, including the two leaders of the PEMEN and the PENEM who had taken part in these actions and encouraged the strikers not to free the way to the ferry-boat.
10. 618. The Prosecuter charged them with interfering with communications, insulting the public authorities and resisting orders from the authorities. Out of the 17 persons brought before the Prosecuter, eight were sentenced to four months' imprisonment.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 619. The Committee notes that this case concerns the arrest and sentencing to four months' imprisonment of trade union leaders and trade unionists involved in strike action on 15 June 1983.
2. 620. It also contains allegations concerning the dismissal of trade unionists and the drawing up of black lists which would prevent the trade unionists, dismissed for having taken part in a 48-hour token strike of ocean-going vessels between 15 and 30 June 1983, from being employed again. It contains further allegations concerning the arrest and imprisonment of trade unionists following a second 48-hour token strike on 19 August 1983.
3. 621. According to the complainant, the token strike in June 1983 had been voted by the two General Assemblies of the PEMEN and PENEM and was intended to make claims of an economic and occupational nature. The second token strike in the month of August had also been called to make occupational claims.
4. 622. The Government, for its part, does not communicate any information on the legal character of the strike and does not refer to the occupational grounds on which the strikes were allegedly held, mentioned by the complainants.
5. 623. On the other hand, the Government gives detailed information on the way in which the strike pickets had allegedly prevented the non-strikers from working and had been arrested upon an order from the judicial authorities after a brief skirmish during which two employees of the port of Piraeus had been slightly injured.
6. 624. Furthermore, the Government confirms that eight of the strikers had indeed been sentenced to four months' imprisonment after the strike in June 1983 for having interfered with communications, insulted the public authorities and resisted orders from the authorities. It does not refer to the allegation that other strikers had been arrested and would incur long prison sentences for having taken part in the strike of 19 August 1983. It also makes no comment on the allegations of dismissals and black lists which would prevent those seamen, dismissed for having taken part in the strike, to find work again.
7. 625. With respect to the arrest and sentencing to four months' imprisonment of the trade unionists involved in the strike action on 15 June 1983, the Committee notes the explanations given by the Government that they were sentenced for insulting the public authorities, resisting orders from the authorities and interfering with communications. Generally, the Committee considers that the authorities should not have recourse to imprisonment in the case of peaceful strikes. However, in view of the detailed information supplied by the Government, the Committee considers that, in the present case, the strikers, in forcibly blocking access to ships that were ready to sail, went beyond what might be considered as being the legitimate and peaceful exercise of the right to strike. In these circumstances, the Committee considers that this aspect of the case calls for no further examination.
8. 626. Furthermore, the Committee requests the Government to send detailed information on the allegations to which it has not replied, concerning the dismissal of strikers and the entering of names on black lists which would prevent the workers, dismissed for having taken part in a strike, from finding employment again and the arrests of strikers following the second strike of 19 August 1983.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 627. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends the Governing Body to approve the present interim report, and in particular the following conclusions:
   • (a) With respect to the arrest and sentencing to four months' imprisonment of trade unionists involved in strike action on 15 June 1983, the Committee is of the opinion that the strikers went beyond what could be considered as being the legitimate and peaceful exercise of the right to strike; it, therefore, considers that this aspect of the case does not call for further examination.
   • (b) With respect to the allegations concerning the dismissal of strikers, the entering of names on black lists which would prevent them from finding employment again and the arrest of strikers following a second strike on 19 August 1983, the Committee requests the Government to send its observations on these matters.