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SIU’s John Fay Honored for Years of Service to ITF

September 2002

Delegates to the ITF 40th Congress gave a standing ovation to SIU Executive Vice President John Fay as he received the organization’s prestigious distinguished service award for his more than 20 years of international trade union work. On the last day of the ITF’s convention, Aug. 21, General Secretary David Cockroft recognized Fay’s meritorious contribution to the international organization made up of more than 600 transport unions from around the globe. Fay’s participation in the ITF dates back to the late 1970s when he began representing the SIU on the ITF’s Fair Practices Committee—the group within the ITF charged with executing the organization’s flag-of-convenience campaign. Fay was elected to the position of vice chairman of the ITF Seafarers’ Section in October 1992, Cockroft told the more than 1,000 trade unionists assembled in Vancouver, Canada. In 1995, at the ITF’s Seafarers’ Section meeting, Fay was elected to the position of chairman upon the resignation of his predecessor, Cockroft continued. And three years later, in 1998, at the ITF’s Congress, meeting in New Delhi, Fay was re-elected. Fay, Cockroft noted, was the first American ever to serve as chairman of the ITF’s Seafarers’ Section. “John played a major role” in formulating ITF policy and actions in the organization’s campaign to stop runaway-flag shipping, Cockroft told the delegates. As chairman of the Seafarers’ Section, the part of the ITF dedicated to the concerns and interests of seamen on both national flag vessels and those under flags of convenience, Fay helped ensure a vigorous ITF approach to combating unfair conditions for the world’s seamen. As part of that campaign, Fay served as the seafarers member of the United Nations’ International Labor Organization’s Joint Maritime Committee from 1994 to 2001. U.S. System ‘Significant’ Looking back on his tenure with the ITF that ended when he resigned from the Seafarers’ Section chairman position in December 2000, Fay said the experience had been invaluable. “Seeing what conditions other maritime unions face made me fight that much harder to keep everything we have here in the United States. For instance, the Jones Act. So many countries have done away with their cabotage laws. It’s a very significant thing that we have the Jones Act,” Fay explained. “And then getting to travel around the world (and) seeing the kinds of terrible and harsh conditions that seamen work in,” he continued. “Taking on the flag-of-convenience operators and raising the standards for the seamen on those boats is so important, and that’s what the ITF is trying to do.” Defending Union Rights For his role in that effort, the ITF awarded Fay its top honor—the “ITF Gold Badge,” a small gold pin with the ITF emblem. Cockroft read the accompanying certificate to the delegates during the presentation: “In deep appreciation of the dedicated and distinguished service which has been given to the cause of transport workers internationally, in defense and furtherance of the interests of those workers, and for the preservation of trade union freedoms and rights, the ITF executive board has, by unanimous decision, nominated John Fay for the award in public of the ITF Gold Badge, the highest mark of respect and honour which it can bestow on behalf of the ITF’s affiliated membership in all the continents of our globe.” Upon receipt of the award, Fay said, “This really means a lot to me because it is an award from my peers—other seamen and union officers.” Replacing Fay for the SIU in the ITF is Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel, who was re-elected at the ITF Congress to the position of Vice Chair of the Seafarers’ Section. Fay, who began his seagoing life in 1949, first coming ashore as a union official in 1957, served as SIU secretary-treasurer from 1990 to 1997. Since 1997, Fay holds the post of SIU executive vice president. ‘All in SIU Proud’ Reflecting on Fay’s efforts as a union official and ITF activist, SIU President Michael Sacco noted for the LOG, “All of us in the SIU should be proud of John’s work—both in the SIU and in the ITF. He’s always put seamen first and he’s accomplished a lot for seafarers in the U.S. and all around the world.”