The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) has issued the following news release:Global union the ITF will launch tomorrow, 10 September, a major new campaign to protect the lives and rights of passengers and workers on the world’s transport systems in an age of terrorism. The open ended Safety and Security campaign will see the ITF organising worldwide initiatives promoting these objectives.
The ITF – which represents over 4.5 million workers in all modes of transport in 600 unions in 141 countries – is seeking to strengthen the positive role of transport workers in preventing terrorist outrages. The Safety and Security theme will be used to both help transport workers detect terrorist threats and also protect them from excessive legislation introduced following attacks.
ITF General Secretary David Cockroft explained: “On September 11th 2001 public transport, in the shape of civilian airliners, was used as both target and weapon. On 11th March this year trains were used as instruments of terror in Madrid. On those days the public, like their governments and police forces, woke up to a new kind of outrage and to the vulnerability of the means of transport most of us use every day.”
“Since these events transport workers have found themselves in a paradoxical situation: sometimes recognised as an essential part of public protection, sometimes as possible targets, and at other times as potential terrorists. We intend to make the reinforcement of their ability to help protect the society they serve central to our activities, and something that governments never forget when they are planning their civil protection strategies.
“The ITF will not, however, support any opportunistic attempts to invoke the name of security in order to evade people’s basic and trade union rights.”
The first worldwide event in the ITF’s campaign will be World Maritime Day on 30 September 2004, when the new security role of seafarers, which the ITF has helped develop in conjunction with governments and the International Maritime Organisation, will be backed, along with a plea for decent treatment of seafarers, many of whom are now being victimised as a result of preventative measures that are actually undermining that security role (see http://www.itf.org.uk/english/pressarea/july/sfsecurity.htm for more details).
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