ITF Seafarers

Industry Coordinates To Help Ukrainian Seafarers And Their Families Evacuating Odessa

Ukrainian seafarers and their families evacuating Odessa

A number of maritime industry players have come together to provide safe and secure accommodation in Romania and Poland for Ukrainian seafarers and their families. The group – the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the Marine Transport Workers’ Trade Union of Ukraine (MTWTU) and global ship manager V.Group – have put funding and organisation in place to get Ukrainian seafarers families out of the country to accommodation in neighbouring Romania and Poland.

Help is available for...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/industry-coordinates-to-help-ukrainian-seafarers-and-their-families-evacuating-odessa/

P&O Ferries Sackings Show A Shocking Disregard By DP World

ITF - P&O Ferries protest

DP World sells itself as a progressive business concerned with social and corporate responsibility that supports labour rights and works ‘in a responsible way that prioritises sustainability and impact on the people, communities and environment in which we operate’. The company now has serious questions to answer following the ruthless sacking of 800 seafarers at its subsidiary P&O Ferries.

On March 17, P&O Ferries fired 800 British-based seafarers with 30 minutes notice over a pre-recorded Zoom...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/po-ferries-sackings-show-a-shocking-disregard-by-dp-world/

ITF And ETF Condemn P&O Mass Sacking And Outsourcing

P and O vessel

Global and European maritime unions have expressed anger and condemnation at breaking news that ferry operator P&O Ferries will move to sack its UK based seafaring workforce and outsource their jobs to non-union, agency workers. Affiliates of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) were informed that P&O Ferries had paused services “in preparation for a company announcement”.

By afternoon the company had announced to media that 800...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/itf-and-etf-condemn-po-mass-sacking-and-outsourcing/

Russian Attacks On Merchant Ships In Ukraine; Blockade Imposed On Coast And Ports

Bulgarian and NATO navi ships take part during Bulgarian-NATO military navy exercise in the Black sea, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Friday, July, 10, 2015. The naval base in Varna hosts naval exercise with international participation Breeze 2015, between July 3 and 12 in the territorial waters of Bulgaria. More than 30 ships and 1700 troops from the navies of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Turkey and the USA participate in the exercise. Among the participating vessels there are three frigates from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) and four ships from the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2). The Bulgarian Navy participates with fifteen warships, auxiliary ships and cutters, two helicopters and more than 1000 personnel. Furthermore, two air planes from the Bulgarian Air Force, troops from the Bulgarian Land Forces and an US patrol airc (Photo by NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

BBC website reported that Russian forces are ‘not ready yet to launch a sea-based operation against the southern port city (of Odesa) as they haven’t established troops on the ground’ there, says Honorary Trustee and Academic Advisor, Prof Steven Haines. While this may well be the case about a ground assault on the port city – it is by no means the whole story. Odesa has not escaped assault. All the available evidence strongly suggests Russia’s naval forces have most certainly been launching...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/russian-attacks-on-merchant-ships-in-ukraine-blockade-imposed-on-coast-and-ports/

Pandemic Delivers Maersk Record Profit, But Shipping Giant Is Leaving Tug Workers Behind: ITF

Maersk

Record profits being announced by AP Moller-Maersk risk not being shared fairly with workers who delivered the company its historic results unless Maersk leadership take stronger action to rein in anti-union practices within Svitzer, the company’s tug division. Unions representing workers across Maersk’s supply chain addressed shareholders at the group’s AGM in Copenhagen today on the company’s labour rights performance over the past year.

“Today AP Moller-Maersk posted a record profit $24...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/pandemic-delivers-maersk-record-profit-but-shipping-giant-is-leaving-tug-workers-behind/

Seafarer Goes Home After Months Abandoned Alone On A Ship At Tawfiq Port In Egypt

seafarer at Tawfiq port

Ahmad Bakkour Khaled (right) celebrating his freedom after months trapped alone on his ship without food or electricity for months. He is pictured (below) with Nasser Hussein the ITF union contact from its Egyptian affiliate the Professional Syndicate of Seafarers who found a relief guard for the ship.

A seafarer was trapped alone on his ship without food or electricity for months, and no-one would help until the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) intervened. He has finally made...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/seafarer-goes-home-after-months-abandoned-alone-on-a-ship-at-tawfiq-port-in-egypt/

Captain Of Exploding Ship Stuck In Dubai Without Any Charges For 7 Months

OCEAN TRADER - CAPTAIN PHOTO

The Dubai police have still not allowed the captain of MV Ocean Trader (IMO 9056739) to return home after seven months, despite the UAE’s improved position on human rights. Captain Santosh Kumar, an Indian national, was questioned by the police in July last year after a container being loaded on to his vessel exploded at Jebel Ali Port. He has not been charged with anything, yet the Dubai police will not allow him to leave the country. The other 13 members of the crew were allowed home in...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/captain-of-exploding-ship-stuck-in-dubai-without-any-charges-for-7-months/

UAE Transport Authority Takes Tough Action Over Ship Manager Withholding Seafarer Wages

Dubai Port Adobe resized

Twelve seafarers who have not been paid for more than nine months have been given a boost as the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure fined the ship’s manager 30,000 UAE Dirham (approximately USD$8000). The cargo ship MV Project Trader (IMO: 8224547) has already been arrested by a firm of lawyers which will not confirm who they represent but are suspected to be acting for DP World, owners of the port at Dubai.

The ship’s manager, Inzu Ship Charter LLC, has now been fined by the Maritime...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/uae-transport-authority-takes-tough-action-over-ship-manager-withholding-seafarer-wages/

7-Month Delay In Ukrainian Seafarers’ Drug Import Case ‘Totally Unacceptable’: ITF

MSC Capucine crew

Seafarers’ unions are extremely concerned that four Ukrainian nationals have now been detained without charge by Turkish authorities for more than seven months. The crew are being held over claims the seafarers knew about 176 kilograms of cocaine that was found by officials inside a shipping container onboard the MSC vessel that they were operating.

In July 2021, officials boarded the MSC Capucine R (IMO: 9210086) at Iskenderun, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. While on board the authorities...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/7-month-delay-in-ukrainian-seafarers-drug-import-case-totally-unacceptable-itf/

Tanker Crew ‘Rescued’ From Slave-Like Conditions After Panama Refuses To Act: ITF Seafarers

Tanker crew ‘rescued’ from slave-like conditions after Panama refuses to act

Ten seafarers from Aframax oil tanker Wind (IMO: 9252967) have been freed from slave-like conditions only after the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) demanded their release. Many of the crew were more than two months over the end of their contracts, raising safety concerns, and had not been paid for months at a time (currently, one-month’s pay is owned).

The ITF wrote to the ship’s operator, SR Navigation, on 29 October 2021 and again on 3 November 2021 demanding that the...

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/tanker-crew-rescued-from-slave-like-conditions-after-panama-refuses-to-act-itf-seafarers/

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