Page 208 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 208
plex Gateways
and the ‘iceberg’ model. The balloon hypothesis identifies the strike as
one of the forms of agitation that depends on legislation and negotia-
tion, in practice like a balloon: if you squeeze one part, the air comes out
of the other. It is a ‘plus, minus’ model because the strike is the response
to a decrease or lack of other forms of bargaining. On the other hand, we
can be faced with the iceberg when work stoppages, negotiations, chang-
es in legislation, and even unorganized protests are part of a single block
and the strike represents the tip of the iceberg. In this case, the model is
a ‘plus, plus’ model because it sums up all the reasons for the conflict and
represents the visible tip. Of course, much depends also on the specif-
ic sector taken into consideration and on its characteristics. Various re-
searches on port work have highlighted how, over time, the balloon mod-
el has become the more frequent. In fact, with the decasualization of port
work and all the other subsequent labour market reforms, other forms of
unorganized protest (what cannot be seen in the iceberg) have decreased,
bringing the protests back within the exclusively trade union parameter
(Sapsford and Turnbull 1994).
Many of the more recent strikes that have affected workers of both
ports can be reported within the reasoning carried out by Sapsford and
Turnbull and be traced back to the balloon metaphor. Nevertheless, we
can identify two strikes (one in Koper and one in Trieste) that can be re-
lated to the image of the iceberg. In these cases, in fact, it is possible to
recognize in those collective actions motivations and meanings beyond
the boundaries of the port, bound to the social realities of reference.
The first strike that we will consider is the one involving the Koper
crane operators. From 29 July 2011, more than three hundred workers
belonging to the professional union stopped working for eight days. The
crane workers were protesting against the new working regime that was
imposed on them by the Port Management. Apart from demanding im-
provements in workers’ safety, the crane operators opposed a new work
scheme envisaging three operators switching on two cranes in one shift,
while currently two operators work one crane. The changes would also cut
their breaks from two hours to one.
The formal strike organized by the crane operators shortly after-
wards was followed by the spontaneous support of IPS employees, many
of whom came from the area of the former Yugoslavia, who demanded
the same wages for the same tasks and equal rights for all (Gleščič 2011).
There were moments of tension and the management of the port threat-
208
and the ‘iceberg’ model. The balloon hypothesis identifies the strike as
one of the forms of agitation that depends on legislation and negotia-
tion, in practice like a balloon: if you squeeze one part, the air comes out
of the other. It is a ‘plus, minus’ model because the strike is the response
to a decrease or lack of other forms of bargaining. On the other hand, we
can be faced with the iceberg when work stoppages, negotiations, chang-
es in legislation, and even unorganized protests are part of a single block
and the strike represents the tip of the iceberg. In this case, the model is
a ‘plus, plus’ model because it sums up all the reasons for the conflict and
represents the visible tip. Of course, much depends also on the specif-
ic sector taken into consideration and on its characteristics. Various re-
searches on port work have highlighted how, over time, the balloon mod-
el has become the more frequent. In fact, with the decasualization of port
work and all the other subsequent labour market reforms, other forms of
unorganized protest (what cannot be seen in the iceberg) have decreased,
bringing the protests back within the exclusively trade union parameter
(Sapsford and Turnbull 1994).
Many of the more recent strikes that have affected workers of both
ports can be reported within the reasoning carried out by Sapsford and
Turnbull and be traced back to the balloon metaphor. Nevertheless, we
can identify two strikes (one in Koper and one in Trieste) that can be re-
lated to the image of the iceberg. In these cases, in fact, it is possible to
recognize in those collective actions motivations and meanings beyond
the boundaries of the port, bound to the social realities of reference.
The first strike that we will consider is the one involving the Koper
crane operators. From 29 July 2011, more than three hundred workers
belonging to the professional union stopped working for eight days. The
crane workers were protesting against the new working regime that was
imposed on them by the Port Management. Apart from demanding im-
provements in workers’ safety, the crane operators opposed a new work
scheme envisaging three operators switching on two cranes in one shift,
while currently two operators work one crane. The changes would also cut
their breaks from two hours to one.
The formal strike organized by the crane operators shortly after-
wards was followed by the spontaneous support of IPS employees, many
of whom came from the area of the former Yugoslavia, who demanded
the same wages for the same tasks and equal rights for all (Gleščič 2011).
There were moments of tension and the management of the port threat-
208
