***Oshawa sailors strike defused for now as crew gets paid
Eighteen Romanian sailors docked in the Oshawa harbour have put their strike on hold and allowed the offloading of cargo after receiving months of back pay Tuesday, at least temporarily defusing a tense labour fight that highlighted the wildly globalized economics of modern shipping.
Boris Nikiforov, the Russian captain of the MV Fritz, spoke to reporters Tuesday outside the harbour, confirming that a manning agency had sent the ship’s crew their wages for April through the end of June. The withheld pay spurred sailors to launch a strike last Friday. The Fritz is carrying 18,000 tonnes of steel products.
The vessel had earlier spent about two weeks at anchor in the St. Lawrence River outside of Cornwall, awaiting orders from the ship’s German owners — a firm called Intersee — and eventually running out of food and potable water. The company did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Harbourmaster Donna Taylor said her top priority was “humanitarian care” for the sailors. When the ship docked in Oshawa last Wednesday, Taylor helped organize the visit of a Romanian priest, who brought sacks of potatoes, onions, and cabbage aboard with him, she said.
But points of contention remain. Another ship is due in the harbour Friday, and the Fritz has four or five days of offloading left before its expensive cargo is fully discharged. Taylor hasn’t ruled out forcing the vessel, which is registered in Liberia, to move.
“We do have recourse that we are exploring,” she told reporters. “We are able to order a vessel off the dock if it’s sitting idle, and if it is impeding the loading, unloading, or transfer of another vessel. That’s the law.”
Meanwhile, union officials worry that the ship’s management will fail to provide the crew with return airfare to Romania. Some of the sailors’ contracts expired months ago, said International Transport Workers' Federation inspector Vince Giannopoulos.
He warned that failure to repatriate the seamen could result in a renewed strike.
“They should have been home with their families in May or June,” he said.
FROM NEW ZEALAND TRANSPORT INTELLIGENCE:
***Wages Recovered For Underpaid Seamen
239 words
10 July 2014
New Zealand Transport Intelligence Business Alert
TMRTNL
English
(c) 2014 The Main Report Publications Ltd
Outstanding pay for seafarers is being recovered after action last week by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) in NZ ports. Delegations of dockworkers and seafarers representing the ITF visited FIVE vessels in NZ ports as part of a week long Flag of Convenience/Port of Convenience campaigns workshop.
About $US110,000 has been recovered in back wages, and issues of crew wellbeing have been investigated. ITF NZ inspector Grahame McLaren says an 8-strong ITF delegation visited the MV Lilly Oldendorff on July 3 in Bluff. The delegation delivered a message through the Ukrainian Master the vessel owner’s refusal to cover his vessels with ITF approved employment agreements was no longer acceptable in this region, and their vessels will now become a target for affiliated unions. In Lyttelton on July 1 several issues were investigated on board the Liberian flagged bulk carrier, Sea Success. Crew were owed pay of over $US53,000, and several crew members had been on board for over 12 months, contravening the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, which NZ is currently considering ratifying.
The Panamanian flagged vessel, SW Spinnaker, was detected as owing $US55,000 of wages to crew. In the Port of Tauranga, ITF representatives visited the ship Cap Pasado on July 4 to talk to crew and investigate issues around the death of a Filipino seafarer aboard the vessel last month in the Port of Los Angeles.
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