International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) inspectors from the SIU and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) recently helped bring seven Panamanian-flag vessels under ITF contract.SIU ITF Inspectors Scott Brady and Tony Sacco along with ILA ITF Inspector Hans Saurenmann also secured more than $27,000 in back pay for crew members aboard the containership Sumida, part of the fleet owned by Tokyo-based Miyazaki Sangyo Kaiun Co., Ltd.
“The ITF had been working for quite a while to get these ships under federation contract, so this is a very welcome development,” said Brady. “It’s obviously good news for the mariners.”
The Sumida case began in late March, when Sacco met with Filipino crew members aboard the runaway-flag vessel in Savannah, Ga. He issued the shipowner a warning letter for not having an ITF contract in place and alerted other federation officials.
Subsequently, Brady and Saurenmann boarded the Sumida in Miami, where they finalized the contract. At the insistence of Sacco, Brady, Saurenmann and SIU ITF East Coast Coordinator Ricky Esopa, the company agreed to make the pact retroactive to Jan. 1, thereby creating back wages of $27,000, which immediately was paid.
“The crew was very happy and grateful,” Brady recalled.
The SIU is affiliated with the ITF, a federation of more than 600 transport-worker unions in 140 countries.
SIU Secretary-Treasurer David Heindel is vice chair of the ITF’s Seafarers’ Section, which brings together seafaring unions from every continent. It determines ITF policy regarding the campaign to end so-called flags of convenience (FOC) and to eliminate substandard working conditions on such vessels.
A flag-of-convenience or runway-flag ship is one that flies the flag of a country other than the country of ownership. Cheap registration fees, low or no taxes and freedom to employ cheap labor typically are among the main motivating factors behind a shipowner’s decision to flag out.
In describing the ITF campaign against runaway flags, the federation noted that it believes there should be a “genuine link between the real owner of a vessel and the flag the vessel flies, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). There is no genuine link in the case of FOC registries…. Some of these registers have poor safety and training standards, and place no restriction on the nationality of the crew. Sometimes, because of language differences, seafarers are not able to communicate effectively with each other, putting safety and the efficient operation of the ship at risk. In many cases these flags are not even run from the country concerned.”
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