Antolin Goya, IDC General Coordinator, said at the end of the meeting that “besides the creation of the school the meeting tackled two other issues: the impact of the crisis in the ports and the IDC expansion in Africa”. Regarding the first issue he added that “we have analysed in detail the consequences of the drop in traffic and the impact on workers, particularly in areas like the Mediterranean, and future perspectives”.

On the other hand, Goya showed his satisfaction on the recent affiliation of 12.000 African members into IDC after the contacts started a few months ago adding that “even though they are de facto members their official affiliation will take place at the next general assembly”. It will precisely be Africa the first continent where the courses from the Belen Maria Training Centre will be implemented as their training needs are bigger.

Goya pointed out that both the reaction to face the global crisis and the expansion in Africa are examples that “solidarity principles are still the main pillars for dockworkers” and said that “our way to face the crisis has been to lower our wages in a significant way to adapt ourselves to the new circumstances and choosing the distribution of work”.
Delegates from Spain, Sweden, Denmark, France, Greece, Malta, United States, Senegal, Ghana, Mauritania and Guinea Conakry offered a detail update on the current situation of their countries as well as future perspectives once the crisis is over.

The situation on the port of Piraeus was widely discusses. After the concession of Pier 2 to Cosco the company has started to operate with temporary not unionised workers with dubious labour conditions within the European labour market.

The closing ceremony counted with the presence of Daniel Baez, Manager of the Las Palmas Stevedoring company who highlighted the importance of the celebration of such event within the 30th Anniversary of Belen Maria and pointed out the importance of maintaining the current stevedoring system adding that “the way ahead is not to remove dockworkers, in my opinion they are of key importance for the port activity. In this sense, we are all working towards the same direction”.