What is the ITF? 
The ITF brings together some 500 unions in more than 125 countries in every
part of the world, and represents over 5 million trade union members in every
branch of transport.
The ITF exists to provide help and support for its affiliated unions. It
fights for social justice, against unemployment and poverty, for decent wages
and working conditions and for a safe and healthy working environment. It is
dedicated to the advancement of free and democratic trade unionism and to the
defense of fundamental human and trade union rights. It believes in the need for
a social dimension to all international and regional free trade arrangements.
The ITF is one of the International Trade Secretariats ‹ global bodies each
representing workers in a specific industry ‹ which, together with the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, which brings together national
trade union centers, make up the international trade union movement.
Flag of convenience campaign
The ITF's activities in the maritime industry are spearheaded by the campaign
by seafarers' and dockers' unions against the transfer of ships to flags of
convenience (FOCs) to evade national laws and national unions. ITF unions have
been battling against the FOC system for half a century, seeking to establish a
"genuine link" between the nationality of a ship and its owner and
setting minimum standards on wages and conditions of employment on flagged-out
ships. The ITF only approves collective agreements if they have acceptable
working conditions and a minimum wage scale, currently based on $1,200 a month
for an able seaman, including the cost of other employment and social benefits.
Seafarers who are hired to work on FOC ships are often given strict
instructions not to make contact with the ITF. Some are even made to sign
contracts or loyalty letters in which they promise not to do so. There are even
some employers who will sign an ITF agreement and then defraud their crews by
paying lower wages ‹ a practice known as double bookkeeping.
FOC seafarers who have problems with their pay and conditions, or any other
grievance about the way they are being treated, can get in touch with the ITF
either directly or can contact one of our Coordinators or Inspectors based in
ports around the world.
ITF International Solidarity Contract
The ITF International Solidarity Contract is a statement signed by delegates
from more than 50 ITF affiliated unions representing dock workers from around
the world. The contract, which was endorsed at the Dockers' Section Conference
in Miami in June 1997, states that:
Dock and port workers' unions affiliated to the International Transport
Workers' Federation (ITF) hereby declare and agree the following:
to support any ITF-affiliated dock workers' union confronted with the
introduction of port reforms (including privatisation) by all available
practical measures
to support, in any way possible, any ITF-affiliated union fighting against
the replacement of trade union dock workers with non-union labour
to support, by any means possible, any ITF-affiliated dock workers' union
fighting attempts by employers or other authorities to undermine the strength of
fellow ITF affiliates
to provide maximum solidarity with other ITF affiliated unions when called
upon to support them in their defense of the members' rights.
|
