Starting on 26 October 2022, around 6500 workers in 23 ports in Chile went on strike for 48 hours. Thus, the port workers were mainly demanding higher wages, sufficient pension for retirement, new labour laws specifically for port work and better safety conditions in the ports. Already during the election campaign, the government of the opportunist Boric had promised better conditions in the ports. None of these promises were kept. The ports of San Antonio, Iquique, San Vicente and Antofagasta saw the largest mobilisations.
On 26 October, the strike began at 8am with a picket at the port of San Antonio, Chile's most important port. In addition to the picket, the dockworkers set up blockades on major access roads with burning tyres. The opportunist unions, under whose leadership the strike was conducted, initially promised an indefinite strike to be carried out until the demands were met. However, after 48 hours, the Unión Portuaria (Port Union) union betrayed the workers' interests and ended the strike, clearly showing its reactionary character. However, the workers were not fobbed off with this capitulationist attitude of the union and set a deadline of 2 November for the old Chilean state to meet their demands. If the state failed to act, the workers would start another strike.
The dockworkers' strike hits the Chilean economy right in the heart. A full 94 percent of the country's imports and exports are seaborne. So the workers are taking exactly the right path with their strike to increase the pressure on the opportunistic government, which has thrown all its promises overboard again, and to demand their rights.
