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.