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New international union for maritime professionals launched

20 May 2009

More than 24.000 shipmasters, officers and ratings are among those who will benefit from a pioneering new “trans-boundary” union for maritime professionals, which was launched last Friday.

Nautilus International, based in the UK and the Netherlands, which represents those working in the shipping sector, at sea, on inland waterways and ashore, was officially created on 15 May. The launch follows many years of increasingly closer cooperation between Nautilus NL and Nautilus UK, including joint industrial negotiations with companies employing British and Dutch members.

The first general secretary of Nautilus International, Mark Dickinson, said: “We embarked on the course of unity out of a sincere and shared desire to build a better future for our members and I am convinced that we will deliver that. For Nautilus UK and Nautilus NL, the move towards unity has been about maintaining our identity as unions representing maritime professionals rather than being swallowed at some point in the future by big general unions.”

Assistant general secretary Marcel van den Broek added: “Our two countries have many common bonds, and the new union has been born from our shared experiences, and our belief that we can make a real difference by sharing our future.”

The new union would have clear policy targets and strategic objectives, he said; top of the list would be rebuilding the seafarer skills base in both countries because training was the key to the future.

Brian Orrell, former general secretary of Nautilus UK and chair of the ITF seafarers’ section, played an instrumental role in the creation of the new union.

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