Commenting on the raid on the CSL Melbourne in Newcastle today, ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel said: “This raid was an error of truly national dimensions. The Australian government seems hell-bent on stripping away the very protections that make Australia the nation it is, and in doing so is becoming an international embarrassment in an industry seeking higher standards of governance and accountability.”

Commenting on today’s planned TPPA trade agreement signing in New Zealand, ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) president Paddy Crumlin said: “We, like our fellow global unions and everyone protesting in Auckland today, are clear about one thing: the TPPA – Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement – offers nothing to workers in the Asia-Pacific region except job insecurity and exclusion.”

Our slogan: solidarity, solidarity, solidarity

As part of its celebration of International Women’s Day on 8 March, the ITF is calling on its affiliates to share some of the stories of their successes for women transport workers, so that other unions can learn from and be inspired by them.

· Aviation workers in Brazil voted to strike on February 3rd · Strikes likely to continue in Argentina · Colombia is negotiating to improve conditions for workers and may join in actions supporting the Brazil and Argentina stoppages

Dockworkers will hold protests in locations across Europe over the next ten days to demonstrate their objection to the poor treatment of workers in the Port of Gdansk, Poland.

The ITF held a series of meeting 25-27 January 2016 in London with Federation of Korean Seafarers’ Union (FKSU) and Federation of Korean Maritime Seafarers’ Union (KMSU), with an aim to create reconciliatory process.

Global union body the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) has asked Bayern Munich to reconsider its new sponsorship deal with Qatar’s Doha Airport.

Road transport unions in the Ivory Coast are stepping up joint lobbying and mobilisation in order to accelerate the signing and implementation of the national collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by the end of June.

Responding to the Spanish Supreme Court’s decision to sentence Captain Mangouras to two years imprisonment over the 2002 Prestige oil spill, ITF seafarers’ section chair Dave Heindel said: “This decision represents the dying gasps of a 14 year old attempt to deflect blame onto the shoulders of an octogenarian man, who has been cleared in the court of world opinion and by his peers.

LAN and TAM Airlines workers in Argentina went on strike this week in protest over continued delays in pay negotiations. The one-day stoppage affected flights in several countries and helped publicise fellow workers’ grievances not just in Argentina but also in Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia.

The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) is to pay for legal support for the court appeal of the ship’s crew members of the Seaman Guard Ohio.