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The European Union (EU) Council of Employment and Social Policy Ministers has agreed that seafarers in the EU should be given the same employment protection rights as onshore workers.

On leaving a meeting with LAN Ecuador’s manager and legal representative, Max Naranjo, at the transnational company’s offices, arranged to try and resolve the dispute caused by the dismissal of the trade union leader, Jimena López, the Minister of Labour, Carlos Ernesto Marx, said he is convinced that the dismissal violated Ecuador’s Constitution and that, in the light of the company’s refusal to adopt a conciliatory position, legal action should be taken to demand her reinstatement.

Thanks to the solidarity of local dockers who stopped cargo operations, and the assistance of ITF merchant seafarers affiliate the Syndicat des Marins Ivoiriens au Commerce (SYMICOM), 19 Fillipino seafarers in Abidjan, Ivory Coast received unpaid wages owed to them and were repatriated.

The ITF welcomed an agreement reached on 3 December between the Georgian Railway Workers' New Trade Union (GRWNTU) and JSC Georgian Railway but warned it would be keeping an eye on the situation because the company had disregarded previous agreements.

International trade union representatives on a fact-finding mission to the Turkish-Syrian border found local authorities struggling to support Kurdish refugees fleeing the barbaric violence of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, and called for greater transparency on how Turkey has spent and distributed international aid.

Dockers from across Europe will join their brothers and sisters at a rally in Rotterdam tomorrow (Wednesday 17 December) to protest against the impact of developments in the container sector at the port there.

Australian government must stop exploitation, says ITF

Twelve young transport workers from nine Latin American countries added their voices to calls for action as world leaders gathered in Lima, Peru for the UN climate change talks, COP20 – a prelude to world climate talks in Paris next year.

Twenty trade union leaders representing workers at LAN in South America successfully persuaded Ecuador’s Minister of Labour yesterday to ask LAN Ecuador to reinstate Ximena López, general secretary of the Airline Workers Trade Union (SITA).

ITF affiliated unions are promoting and distributing a film which highlights the dire conditions faced by seafarers in the Black Sea.