Patricio Fredes is president of the Federation of Port Workers San Antonio Terminal Internacional (Fetraporsati)
Today, as every September 22, we port workers of Chile raise our glasses with pride. It is not just any day. It is the only time of the year when we can celebrate our work alongside our shift mates, our port families, and remember that behind every container, every maneuver, and every exhausting workday, there are people who sustain national commerce with professionalism and courage.
But this date is also memory. It is a “hopefully never again” that runs through us as a guild. We remember with pain and respect the four leaders of the San Antonio Stevedores’ Union who were gunned down during the military dictatorship. These are facts that must not be forgotten. As port workers, we have the duty to keep that history alive and pass it on to the new generations who today enter the docks with the same conviction to fight.
In the last three decades we have seen improvements in the physical conditions of port work, but there are still terminals with extreme tasks and no significant progress. Exposure to risk remains part of our daily reality. To change this, will is needed. The will of the State, of the companies, and of the workers. When one of these actors is absent, progress becomes impossible.
Our most urgent challenge is for the State to open itself to direct dialogue with the sector. It is essential to advance, immediately, on the port law announced in 2012; with this we would improve stability and labor rights. Today the state port authority does not have the tools to force concessionaires and employers to comply with agreements and labor requirements. The clearest example is the situation of the casual labor world: there are still ports that operate precariously and companies that break agreements without considering the stability of port families. Stricter and more urgent regulation is needed.
On the union front, we are taking a historic step. In October, in San Antonio, we will form a legal organization at the national level, with representation from the ports of the north, center, and south. We will leave behind the model of coordination between unions to become a confederation with real weight. We invite all those who want to march by our side, because this struggle is collective.
We are planning to discuss key issues: work safety, the end of concessions in 2029, and the future of the Large-Scale Port (Puerto a Gran Escala, PGE), which has still not been reviewed in depth in San Antonio. We want to be in that conversation, because the port future is not built without the workers.
I always say it and I will never tire of repeating it: ports, without their workers, are just inert iron and cement. There is no port worker who does not feel pride for their port city; we all defend what is ours. Even though there is competition between port cities, more than competing we want that, as the ports grow, the conditions in the cities that host them also improve. Here, in San Antonio, we need improvements in all areas, such as resolving traffic conflicts, health problems, and deficiencies in education, among other issues.
Modernization does not scare us.
Our elders were pioneers in leaving paper behind and operating with gantry cranes, RTGs, and stackers, but automation must include us. The PGE project talks about semi-automated operations and that worries us. We have already worked with the state-owned company EPSA to make it clear that labor protection must be part of the design. We will not accept technology being used to create precarious jobs.
That is why, on this day, I want to send a warm greeting to each and every port worker, male and female, who are part of the great port family of all the coasts of Chile. I thank them for their dedication, because thanks to them we guarantee that national trade is conducted in our port facilities safely and with quality.
We are a very powerful union. The generations have been renewed and new port workers have arrived, willing to take on modern technologies and prioritize safety in the facilities; they are workers entering an industry of great importance and with a professional character. Nothing has been given to us port workers: everything has been won in the streets, by fighting.
We have great challenges ahead and to face them we must be united as a working class. As I always say, no one is superfluous here; being together, it is impossible to fail. The most important thing is family, which embraces and supports the port worker so that they can perform their shift safely and, just as they left for their work, return in the same way to their home at the end of the day.
Happy September 22nd to all maritime, port workers and brothers in the struggle. We will never walk alone again. Never alone again. Up with those who fight!
