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Maritime transport: no breakthrough on social protection hardens unions’ stance

5 July 2007

While employers and workers in the maritime transport industry remain divided on how to conduct shared strategies and better distribute the burden of reforms, unions are determined to harden their struggle for social protection. The conclusion stems from the TRUST Maritime Transport Workshop, held on 20 and 21 July in Brussels, where the hottest topics hitting the industry were discussed.

With 90% of the external trade and 40% of the internal trade in the European Union being made by sea, the impact of expansion on the industry is enormous.

In Europe, this growth demands delicate strategies to deal with restructuring, consolidation and environmental aspects. But it particularly stresses concerns over a set of unsolved social issues - among which discrimination, social dumping and training quality -, while posing the challenge of job creation.

Growth should be channeled into the Lisbon goals of “more and better jobs” and stronger social cohesion, trade unions argued. Being shipping one of the most liberalized and least regulated sectors in Europe, they insisted on:

the need for a proper regulation framework
the eradication of unfair competition posed by substandard shipping and Flags of Convenience
the abolition of discrimination between seafarers on grounds of nationality or residence criteria
the reversion of social dumping mainly in the Ferry sector
the creation of working conditions at a “level playing field” in Europe
the need for training

In particular, unions condemned the Flags of Convenience System, which intrinsically facilitates substandard operations and prevents technical development in a fast evolving sector.

To counteract social dumping, employees are also proposing to establish quotas for European workers on board EU vessels, an idea that ship-owners continue to resist. A better use of State aids would assist employment as well, they explained.

ETF General Secretary Eduardo Chagas said: “We are in front of one of the most liberalized industries enjoying great flexibility. It’s time workers get some security now”.

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