The port of Volos and its refugee workers

At the end of the 1930s, Volos became the country’s third biggest port due to the city’s booming industry and the establishment of a direct rail connection between the port city and the rich mainland. The increasing need for workers was covered by the abundant supply of cheap labour provided by the Asia Minor refugees. Since the mid-1920s, the strong presence of Asia Minor dock workers bolstered not only the port’s growth, but also the development of local union activity.

It was refugees who were the main figures behind the largest dock worker union, the ‘Volos Dock Workers’ Union’ (item 1), which was recognised by the local court in 1926 but had actually been operating since the beginning of the 20^th century under the name ‘The Port of Volos Workers’ Association’ (recognised in 1914). Its members were longshoremen with permanent jobs loading and unloading ships at the port. The refugee freelance workers, who did not have stable employment and provided mostly informal labour, initially organised in their own union with Agios Georgios as their patron saint. In 1932, when professional licenses became compulsory limiting their employment prospects, they organised in an official, recognised union called the ‘Agios Georgios’ Packers and Dock Workers’ Association of Volos (items 2 and 3). These workers worked on land, at the terminal station for the trains carrying goods from Thessaly. Other refugees had also organised in smaller longshoremen unions (the independent Paraskevas team, the ‘Agios Panteleimon’ Association).

At the beginning of the 1930s, with the global financial crisis causing skyrocketing unemployment at the port, competition between dock workers intensified regardless of their union status. There were also major conflicts between workers and employers, mainly with regards to rotation work and the issuance of professional licenses.

After the Second World War, the most important unions were the ‘Agios Nikolaos’ Port Workers’ Union and the ‘Agios Georgios’ Longshoremen’s Association. The first was a strong union offering high wages to its members thanks to the importance of the Volos port, the large volume of imports and exports, and the significant degree of mechanization of the loading/unloading process from ships’ cargo holds, which benefitted the stevedores operating this machinery. In contrast, the ‘Agios Georgios’ was a poor union providing low wages to longshoremen, the workers carrying cargo on land by hand.

The longshoremen’s job ruined the workers’ backs for life, since they were essentially used as human beasts of burden to carry heavy loads (item 4).

Longshoreman Kostas Kaiafas, born in Nea Ionia in 1931, talks about the hardships of his job (items 5a, 5b). Even the ‘well-paid’ dockers were left severely debilitated by their job, despite increasing mechanization. Nikos Paraskevas, born in 1955 in Nea Ionia, Volos, a refugee descendant and third-generation dock worker, talks about the harsh work conditions at the port (items 6a, 6b).

Many Asia Minor families became professionally associated with dock work, leading to multiple generations of dockers and stevedores in the same family. Syrago Paraskeva, born in 1936 to a longshoreman father and a wife and mother of dock workers herself, talks about her memories from her father’s work (items 7a, 7b).