Poor employment conditions in the US-based cruise industry are to be the target of a new campaign planned by the ITF, General Secretary David Cockroft announced at the Connecticut Maritime Association conference in the USA in March.

“We are going after major operators such as Disney, Carnival and the others,” he told the audience packed with shipowner representatives.

The ITF campaign would be run in partnership with the AFL-CIO, the US trade union centre.

“We are more selective in what we like to attack,” he said, arguing that the effects of updating the ITF’s campaign against flags of convenience in 1998 were now showing through. “We reserve the really nasty things for the really bad guys,” he added.

Dockers involved too

The decision by US-based Premier Cruises last year to move from using unionised dock labour to hiring a non-union stevedoring firm in Port Canaveral, Florida, has set alarm bells ringing in the ITF that cruise companies might more aggressively try to maximise the return on their growing investments in new tonnage.

Dockers’ Section Secretary Kees Marges has written to unions representing port workers alerting them to the potential threat. In addition, he is asking affiliates to complete a “Cruise Campaign Questionnaire” in order to find out how many dock workers are employed at cruise terminals.

Industry problems

The growth of the past 10 years has not been without its problems. The industry has been riddled with incidents of sexual harassment at sea. A law suit at Carnival Cruises revealed that there had been more than 100 accusations of sexual harassment and assault against crew members between 1993 and 1998.

In addition, the flourishing Alaskan cruise market – set to top one million passengers this year – was tarnished by a record fine of $6.5 million being imposed on Royal Caribbean for dumping untreated bilge water, oil and other waste into Alaskan waters.

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