Dockworkers strike in Europe and beyond against arms shipments, war deaths

By Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, Oct 30 (Reuters) – Dockworkers went on strike across Europe and beyond on Friday, disrupting shipping and ferries as they protested against the use of their ports for arms shipments and the number of seafarers killed in wars from the Gulf to the Black Sea.

Strikers across 113 ports in 22 countries also called for pay rises, better working conditions and the right to have doctors on board vessels crossing war zones.

“We will not work for their wars, and we will not become food for their cannons,” Apostolos Kypraios, head of the Greek union of merchant marine engineers, told Reuters during a rally at the Greek port of Piraeus.

‘SEAFARERS HAVE SUFFERED MANY CASUALTIES’

“We have felt it first hand, and our families have felt it too, living with the anxiety of whether a colleague will get back home,” he added.

More than 25 unions have now backed the strike originally called in Italy, France, Greece, Spain’s Basque Country, Turkey and Morocco.

On Friday, it covered major shipping hubs in Piraeus, Valencia, Le Havre, Algeciras and Genoa, as well as Morocco’s Tangier Med and India’s Nhava Sheva.

“Seafarers have suffered many casualties — numbering in the hundreds — including both the dead and the severely injured,” the Greek seafarers’ union PENEN said in a statement.

It said there had been 28 attacks on vessels in the Gulf in the first 21 days of October, a record since the start of the Iran war.

It said there had been 570 attacks confirmed in the Black Sea so far this year, leaving 40 seafarers dead and hundreds wounded.

A series of strikes in the western Black Sea has raised concerns about the widening scope of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Cargo operations were disrupted in Piraeus and ferry services to Greek islands were suspended, as about 3,000 dockworkers and seafarers joined the walkout.

Representatives of India’s WTWFI union said about 15 Indian seafarers had died as a result of the Iran war, with many more stranded at sea as waterways were blocked.

A group of dockworkers and other activists, called ‘No Harbour for Genocide’ and campaigning to stop military cargo from reaching Israeli ports, said on Friday the protest would halt some 52,000 containers and snarl cargo worth $2.8 billion.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the impact.

In May 2026, dockworkers’ unions from over 35 European countries published the so-called Istanbul Declaration demanding that port facilities not be used to transport weapons destined for war zones.

Dockworkers said they were also worried about the rising cost of essential goods and energy, stemming from the ongoing conflicts.

“We can’t even afford to fill the car with fuel to get to the supermarket,” George Gogos, head of the Piraeus port dockworkers’ union, said.

(Reporting by Valentini Anagnostopoulou in Athens, Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Andrew Heavens)