The ITF already has nine offices worldwide including three existing in the Asia Pacific region in Delhi, Tokyo and Sydney.
ITF president Paddy Crumlin who is based in Sydney said: “As a trade union organisation we’ve identified Asia Pacific as a major area of growth. We want to see more unions in the region affiliating to the ITF family. We’ll be working in countries where we believe we can help build stronger unions and make solid improvements to labour standards.
“The location and stability of Singapore make it the ideal hub for this work and we know the new office is going to play a vital role in coordinating and managing our activities across Asia Pacific together with the other ITF centers of organising excellence in the region.”
ITF general secretary Steve Cotton said: “We’re excited about this new opportunity – every new resource to support workers on the ground is a step forward.
“We’ve got our congress happening next year in Singapore, and organising that is giving us the chance to work even more closely with our affiliates here. Congress will see trade union representatives from 150 countries coming into the country and the new office is going to play a massive role in coordinating that.
“In Singapore, the tripartite approach to labour negotiations is really working and we want to explore how we could apply that method successfully elsewhere.”
Three members of staff will be based in the Singapore office.
ENDS
The ITF is an international federation of transport workers' trade unions.
Around 700 unions representing over 16 million transport workers from some 150 countries are members of the ITF. It is one of several global unions federation unions allied with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).
The ITF's headquarters is in London and it has offices in Amman, Brussels, Nairobi, New Delhi, Ouagadougou, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney and Tokyo.
