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ITF/Ifatca appeal wins immediate ILO response
9 July 2007
The ILO (International Labour Organization) has taken immediate action after the ITF and Ifatca, the professional air traffic controllers’ organisation, asked it to intervene to free two imprisoned Brazilian controllers and prevent an impending crisis in the country’s aviation sector.
On Friday Ifatca President & CEO Marc Baumgartner and ITF General Secretary David Cockroft personally appealed to the ILO’s Director General, Juan Somavia, to get involved. The ILO has today (Monday) responded to assure both organisations that it acted straight away in response to their urgent appeal.
Ifatca and the ITF had warned that the situation in Brazil is on the brink of chaos, following the arrest of two air traffic controllers for speaking to the press about their concerns about safety, and with industrial unrest imminent.
The two leaders explained to Mr Somavia: “There is, as you know, a growing crisis in the Brazilian civil aviation industry which has led to the closure of two major airlines and large scale unemployment for civil aviation workers. This has now escalated to a major crisis involving air traffic controllers, and a number of leaders of the organisations representing them have now been imprisoned.” They admitted that the situation of the two imprisoned men, Carlos Trifilio and Wellington Rodrigues, was complicated by their being Air Force personnel, but pointed out that their duties are identical to their civilian colleagues, and appealed for “an understanding that workers carrying out normal operations in relation to civil aircraft should have the same rights to freedom of association as other workers”.
The ILO today replied: “Please allow me to assure you that the ILO has immediately intervened with the Brazilian authorities in this regard and requested the Government ensure the release of any air traffic controllers detained or imprisoned for defending the rights of the workers in the industry.”
Ingo Marowsky, Secretary of the ITF’s Civil Aviation Section commented: “In March we signed a joint memorandum of understanding with Ifatca that laid down how our two organisations can best work together on issues of common interest. Today’s result has shown how effectively that joint understanding can work on behalf of both organisations’ members.”
Ifatca (the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations) is a worldwide organisation representing more than 50,000 air traffic controllers in 130 countries.
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