Tuesday, 22 April 2008 14:38

A dispute over unpaid seamen's wages on a ship in Cork harbour has been settled.

The ship, the Defender, which is operated by a Latvian company, had been detained in Cork after action by the seafarers' union but is now free to leave the port.

The Irish inspector for the International Transport Federation, Ken Fleming, said it had been a very tough case but it was encouraging that, for the first time, dockers had supported the seafarers.

He said this would make it more difficult in future for shipowners who did not treat their crews properly.

The 1500-tonne Defender is registered in Phnom Penh in Cambodia but operated by Forestry Shipping of Riga in Latvia, which sent company staff to Cork.

Mr Fleming claimed five of the crew had been pressurised into withdrawing their claims.

The rest of the crew, who claimed they had not been paid since last year, are to get $63,000 in back wages and leave the ship. The ITF is arranging for them to go home.

Cork dockers backed the ships' crew, the first time a stand has been taken by a local labour force in Ireland in support of seafarers, according to Mr Fleming, who in the past two years has recovered $1m in unpaid wages.

MAERSK STRIKE! -- PORT OF TACOMA - By Acumensch, from YouTube - November 8, 2007

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DRKOYrE8XUo

An unannounced wildcat strike was called to push the administration of Maersk (headquarters in Tacoma) to allow union workers to join the union of their choice instead of the union the company requires them to be members of,Securitas, which doesn't provide or bargain for workers' basic needs.

MAERSK UNION STRIKE IN TACOMA - By Tacoma SDS, Indymedia- November 8, 2007

http://seattle. indymedia. org/en/2007/ 11/262632. shtml

An unannounced wildcat strike was called to push the administration of Maersk (headquarters in Tacoma) to allow union workers to join the union of their choice instead of the union the company requires them to be members of, Securitas, which doesn't provide or bargain for workers' basic needs.

The strike at the Port of Tacoma yesterday was unannounced publicly, to catch the company off-guard and to require an arbitrator from the longshoremens' union (ILWU) to come to the port and declare the picket line the Maersk workers staged was unsafe to cross. Jobs With Justice organized the strike. Tacoma SDS and other community members who heard about it went to the port to show solidarity.

Maersk is the largest shipping company in the world, Adam Hoyt said. Its North American headquarters are located in Tacoma. The workers are not granted basic needs that other union workers are, such as a pension plan. Workers are forced to join the Securitas union which is acts as a pacifier to the union workers. Maersk has tried its hardest to convince workers Securitas is a good union, and that other unions are dangerous.

Tacoma P.D. singled out Tacoma SDS members and asked for identification and phone numbers. There were no physical confrontations, but our group felt it was unfair and absurd that officers would single out SDS without any reasonable suspicion. They asked us if we were attending the Smash Tacoma ICE protest, trying to glean information about it. We told them we would not consent to any of their questions or searches. Officer Darlington said the port has been the site of conspiracies to conduct
terrorism. "People ride jetskis next to tankers and then they speed off in the other direction," he said. Tacoma SDS was not convinced.

(Editor's note: some of the members of SDS are also members of the IWW).  

September 10, 2007
Contact: Paul Bigman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
206-214-6169

SEATTLE, Sept 10 - More than 100 demonstrators shut down a major terminal at the Port of Seattle today to protest alleged U.S. labor law violations by Seattle-based National Frozen Foods Corporation (NFFC).

The protest, led by Washington State Jobs with Justice, took place at the Hanjin Shipping Terminal 46. NFFC uses the terminal to ship frozen vegetables to customers in Asia. The Hanjin Boston, chartered by Hanjin from German shipper NSB, was set to transport NFFC products from Seattle.

NFFC is one of the five largest private-label frozen vegetable processors in the United States. NFFC workers in Chehalis have been represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters since 1945.

Armed with fliers and noisemakers, the group blocked the main entrance to the 88-acre terminal, chanting slogans in support of workers’ rights and demanding that longshore workers not load the cargo, while distributing fliers calling on NFFC to return to the bargaining table.

In response, longshore workers and marine clerks from the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) stood by in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement until the issue was resolved. The terminal operator agreed to isolate the NFFC cargo, put it on wheels and have NFFC remove the cargo from the terminal.