ITF Dockers unite against Putin’s Ukraine invasion

Fol­low­ing last week’s call from trans­port unions for an imme­di­ate cease­fire to the con­flict in Ukraine, the glob­al labour move­ment and inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty has stood stead­fast in their con­dem­na­tion of the war and call for peace.

“As we enter day eight of hos­til­i­ties in Ukraine, we urge lead­ers on all sides to show restraint, diplo­ma­cy and urgent­ly de-esca­late the con­flict to min­imise the loss of inno­cent lives,” said ITF Pres­i­dent and Dock­ers’ Sec­tion Chair Pad­dy Crum­lin.

“Work­ers around the world are defi­ant in oppo­si­tion to Russia’s inva­sion includ­ing thou­sands of dock work­ers show­ing sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of the Ukraine and con­tempt for Putin’s aggres­sion.”

In the Unit­ed King­dom, ITF Dock­ers’ affil­i­ate Unite the Union announced late last week that its dock­ers mem­bers would refuse to load and unload Russ­ian-owned or con­trolled ves­sels in British ports.

“Unite proac­tive­ly sought UK-wide action from gov­ern­ment to ban Russ­ian ves­sels from dock­ing in our ports,” Unite Assis­tant Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Steve Turn­er said. On Mon­day UK’s Trans­port Sec­re­tary pro­hib­it­ed Russ­ian flagged, reg­is­tered, owned or char­tered ves­sels entry into UK ports.

The Inter­na­tion­al Long­shore and Ware­house Union of Cana­da (ILWU Cana­da), also wrote to Cana­di­an Prime Min­is­ter Justin Trudeau call­ing for a UK-style ban. Yes­ter­day the Trans­port Cana­da announced they will have a ban in place this week.

“Our work­ers stand firm­ly with work­ers world­wide. They demand that Cana­da imme­di­ate­ly choke off any trade that finances this bru­tal Russ­ian regime and its aggres­sion,” said ILWU Cana­da Pres­i­dent Rob Ash­ton.

In Aotearoa New Zealand, ITF affil­i­ates Mar­itime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ) and the Rail and Mar­itime Trans­port Union (RMTU) joined forces this week to hand let­ters of protest to the cap­tains of vis­it­ing Russ­ian-flagged and owned ves­sels in the country’s ports. RMTU Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary, Wayne But­son, said it was impor­tant to note that any protest was not direct­ed at Russ­ian crews, but against the aggres­sion and deci­sions of Pres­i­dent Putin.

The Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia (MUA) has also writ­ten to the Aus­tralian Prime Min­is­ter issu­ing an urgent call for mean­ing­ful steps be tak­en to place pres­sure upon Russia’s eco­nom­ic, social, and strate­gic inter­ests across the Asia Pacif­ic region.

Crum­lin, who is Nation­al Sec­re­tary of the MUA called on Prime Min­is­ter Scott Mor­ri­son to “join oth­er gov­ern­ments around the world in refus­ing to pro­vide eco­nom­ic suc­cour to the Putin regime.”

Marine Trans­port Work­ers’ Trade Union of Ukraine (MTWTU) Chair­man, Oleg Gry­go­riuk, said “We are thank­ful to broth­ers and sis­ters in the ITF Dock­ers’ fam­i­ly for their actions and sup­port. This grow­ing move­ment of sol­i­dar­i­ty brings us the con­fi­dence to keep fight­ing this out­ra­geous inva­sion from Putin. We will pre­vail.”

Reuters reports that the Port of Mar­i­upol in the south of Ukraine has been under con­stant Russ­ian artillery assault for almost a week. Ukraine’s Mar­itime Admin­is­tra­tion has said that all Ukrain­ian ports will remain closed until Russia’s inva­sion ends.

“As in any war, dock­ers and oth­er trans­port work­ers find them­selves on the front line, despite the enor­mous risks to keep the coun­try mov­ing,” said Crum­lin. “We are wit­ness­ing indis­crim­i­nate attacks on civil­ian and com­mer­cial infra­struc­ture by the Russ­ian forces. The sit­u­a­tion is dire. Our hearts go out to the peo­ple of the Ukraine. We con­demned this war and con­tin­ue to call on all par­ties to seek peace­ful solu­tions imme­di­ate­ly.”

END

About the ITF Dock­ers’ Sec­tion: The ITF Dock­ers’ Sec­tion is made up of 229 affil­i­at­ed unions, rep­re­sent­ing almost half a mil­lion dock­work­ers across every region of the globe. Along with the sea­far­ers and riv­er work­ers, dock­ers were some of the first work­ers to come togeth­er to form the ITF. ITF Dock­ers have a bas­tion of inter­na­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty ever since.

About the ITF: The Inter­na­tion­al Trans­port Work­ers’ Fed­er­a­tion (ITF) is a demo­c­ra­t­ic, affil­i­ate-led fed­er­a­tion of trans­port work­ers’ unions recog­nised as the world’s lead­ing trans­port author­i­ty. We fight pas­sion­ate­ly to improve work­ing lives; con­nect­ing trade unions and work­ers’ net­works from 147 coun­tries to secure rights, equal­i­ty and jus­tice for their mem­bers. We are the voice of the almost-20 mil­lion women and men who move the world.