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The ITF Seafarers' Trust - which often pays for vehicles for seafarers' welfare bodies and missions - has announced it will be surveying their uses and effectiveness so as to use its grants as effectively as possible. The Trust will be partnering in the programme with the International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) and the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA).

Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are backing a new book on the plight of fishers that is due for publication tomorrow, Thursday 30 July.

Members of Colombia’s SNTT (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Transporte) union took to the streets of five of the country’s cities yesterday to build union membership and worker confidence ahead of negotiations with the company tomorrow.

Dock workers in Poland staged a protest last Tuesday (21 July) in their ongoing struggle for freedom of association and collective bargaining rights at the Port of Gdansk.

Thirty women from railway unions in Russia and transport unions in Bulgaria shared their experiences in Moscow last week with Ekaterina Yordanova and Olga Vakuleno, members of the ITF women transport workers’ committee.

The ITF has urged the Indonesian president to intervene over the extension of the concession for the Jakarta International Container Terminal that has been granted to Hutchison Port Holdings by the Indonesia Port Company (IPC).

A group of trade unionists sponsored by the ETF – the ITF’s European arm – submitted a formal request to the European Commission on 13 July to launch a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) called Fair Transport Europe.

A bitter, month-long dispute at Air Madagascar that grounded most of the carrier’s fleet for weeks finally ended on 17 July, following successful negotiations between the carrier and the ITF-affiliated Syndicat General Maritime de Madagascar (SYGMMA).

ITF general secretary Steve Cotton joined several Australian union leaders and over 200 union activists at a rally on 20 July to protest against the treatment of the Alexander Spirit crew by petroleum company Caltex.

Concerted action by the ITF and maritime unions on two continents in one week was successful in bringing support to seafarers working and living in sub-standard conditions, and in spreading the word about the role of trade unions in protecting seafarers and their rights under international maritime law.