- Title: Striking dockers block main Douala port in Cameroon
- Date: 12th May 2017
- Summary: DOUALA, CAMEROON (MAY 12, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DOCKERS OUTSIDE PORT ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF DOCKER HOLDING UP PIECE OF PAPER READING (French) "GPAC (Groupement Professionel des Acconiers du Cameroun/Professional Group of Port Handlers of Cameroon) Steals from the docker... 4 hours of pay instead of 8 hours. Health insurance equals theft. Dockers are slaves with no salaries, and no status. Where is the docker's life in the port of Douala?" DOCKERS STANDING IN GROUP GROUP OF DOCKERS WALKING DOCKER HOLDING UP SIGN READING (French) "No to slavery. No to marginalisation. Free the docker." (SOUNDBITE) (French) DOCKER, RIGOBERT KAMTCHOUANG, SAYING: "We are on strike because we are living in very poor conditions. Total poverty." DOCKERS SITTING UNDER A TREE (SOUNDBITE) (French) DOCKER, MARCELIN TIOSOP, SAYING: "I've been working in this port for 19 years with my children, in these poor conditions, it's total slavery here. It is not work, it's slavery. It is the exploitation of man by man, that's the word. We must tell the truth here and I am telling the truth, nothing but the truth. We work to live but here it is death that we find, rather than life." VARIOUS OF DOCKERS SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (French) DOCKER, BEJAMIN ESSOMBA, SAYING: "Our comrade died yesterday at the hospital, the general (hospital), because there was no follow up and our insurance (cover) is cut by 5,200 (CFA) a month, each. We are 4,000 (dockers) so imagine the percentage! The pharmacy, when we go to the hospital all they give us is paracetamol, sir, and ibuprofen. And if we spend two weeks in the hospital they tell us there is no more quota (we can't get work anymore)." VARIOUS OF DOCKER HOLDING UP REMITTANCE PAPER TRUCK LIFTING CARGO CONTAINER IN PORT CONTAINERS STACKED UP IN PORT
- Embargoed: 26th May 2017 15:42
- Keywords: coffee cocoa Douala block port strike Cameroon dockers
- Location: DOUALA, CAMEROON
- City: DOUALA, CAMEROON
- Country: Cameroon
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0016GJ9XDZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A strike by dockers in Cameroon's main port in Douala blocked the export of about 3,025 tonnes of cocoa and 12 tonnes of coffee on Friday (May 12), a senior source at the National Office of Cocoa and Coffee (ONCC) told Reuters.
A spokesman said all port activities were halted because hundreds of dockers were blocking the entrance to the port demanding better pay and working conditions.
Cocoa prices in Cameroon, the world's fifth-largest producer, were steady at lower levels in April, tracking futures markets in London and New York, farmers and exporters said.
Expectations of bumper crops around the world have raised the prospect of a large global surplus this season and sent prices plummeting.
Cameroon exported 24,500 tonnes of coffee in the 2015/16 season, compared with 23,865 tonnes the previous season. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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