Labour and labour disputes at the port of Volos during the interwar period

Many refugees found work at the port of Volos almost immediately after settling in the city, as a large proportion of them had acquired relevant work experience in the coastal towns they originated from, such as Englezonisi (Uzunada), Vourla (Urla) and Smyrna. Their familiarity with dock work in conjunction with high labour demand made the Volos port a common destination among male refugees looking for employment. The majority of them offered unskilled labour as dockhands, loading and unloading the boats and larger ships anchored at the port, while others became longshoremen and packers, carrying goods from the train station to the dock and from the dock to warehouses, factories and wherever else they were needed. A few refugee workers with more specialised skills, usually hailing from Smyrna and Constantinople, managed to set up workshops offering ship repair services along the coast from Agios Konstantinos to Anavros. Young refugee boys also used to wander around the port looking for odd jobs. They usually filled cans with water from the port’s public taps and carried them to the ships where they offered water to the working dockhands.

Thus, when they settled in Volos, the refugees entered a fully-formed labour market dominated by local dock workers, many of whom had been working at the port for years. Since the beginning of the 20^th century, the port of Volos had become a major import/export hub, a role which was further reinforced during the 1920s when the city experienced rapid industrial growth. The increased trade flow through the port created more employment opportunities since there was a rising demand for workers to carry goods and cargos. Within this context, refugee workers would have to assert their place in a port labour market which was characterised by a long-established structure, both in regard to work organisation and wage distribution.

In June 1932, ten years after their settlement in Volos, sixteen refugees from the area of Nea Ionia and the refugee neighbourhood of Iolkos (also known as Agios Vasileios), established the ‘Agios Georgios’ Association of Volos Packers and Longshoremen. As stated in a letter written by the association and addressed to the Volos Chamber of Commerce, dated July 8, 1932, the main reason for the establishment of the association was the need to protect the right of the refugee longshoremen to continue working at the port of Volos, which was under threat by a new law introducing a mandatory employment requirement in the form of a professional license. By August, the association had accumulated 44 members.

In general, the massive influx of cheap labour offered by refugees upset the balance between labour supply and demand in many work sectors in Greece, threatening the livelihood and income of those already participating in the labour market. As a result, various professions, dock work among them, were declared ‘regulated professions’, imposing restrictions on the entrance of new workers in the market. Between 1927 and 1928, the unions of tobacco workers, mill workers, bakers, typographers, dock workers and others demanded the issuance of professional licenses for their members, restricting access to employment for freelance workers. Another tactic, adopted first for dock workers in 1924 and then used in other sectors as well, was the introduction of rotation work during periods of reduced economic activity. The passing of a law restricting dock work only to those in possession of special professional documentation caused conflict between native and refugee longshoremen.

The economic crisis that hit Greece at the beginning of the 1930s had a negative impact on the labour market at the port of Volos, intensifying competition and increasing precarity. Even before the effects of the crisis were felt in the community, on June 7, 1930, the local newspaper Tachydromos published a letter of protest written by the refugee dock worker union ‘Agios Panteleimonas’ Longshoremen Association, which shed light on the issue of work organisation at the port and the inter-group conflicts that stemmed from it. More specifically, in the letter the association decries the harbor master’s decision to deny docking to a commercial steam boat which was to be unloaded by the association’s dock workers. Instead, according to the association’s complaint, the task was carried out by the workers of another employer by using barges.

A few months earlier, in February 1930, the same newspaper had published an article entitled ‘Refugee and local dock workers: a major issue for the port’s commercial activities’, which brought to the foreground the ongoing conflict between native and refugee dockhands. The article presented in detail the grievances of the refugees, who were complaining about their exclusion from the port labour market, since the native workers’ unions refused to issue them the professional licenses which were necessary for them to join the unions and continue working at the port.

Two years later, in May 1932, when the effects of the economic crisis started being felt across the city, the chairman of the Volos Chamber of Commerce asked the committee responsible for regulating dock work not to ban workers lacking a professional license, in an effort to curb the rise of unemployment and mitigate its negative effects on both the economy and the society. However, the plan for the exclusion of workers who couldn’t acquire the necessary documents went ahead. With a letter to the Volos Chamber of Commerce on April 12, 1934, the ‘Agios Georgios’ Association of Volos Packers and Longshoremen continued to fight for the issuance of professional accreditation for its members and demand that labour at the port be distributed among members of all unions, highlighting the dividing lines and conflicting interests between natives and refugees in the city’s labour market and the ways in which existing labour structures were upended by the arrival and settlement of refugees.