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Nearly 500 workers have signed up to their local union as part of a young workers’ camp in Jinja, Uganda, backed by the ITF.

Over 100 young workers are participating in the event, with representatives from Uganda, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Tanzania and Mozambique. The ITF part funded the event and sent an international delegation of representatives from the ITF’s young transport workers committee.

On World Toilet Day, 19 November 2019, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is launching a Transport Workers’ Sanitation Charter, because toilet rights are human rights.

The charter provides guidance on what action should be taken by employers and governments to ensure access to toilets for transport workers, and includes a checklist for workers and their unions to assess current toilet provision.

The ITF has held a training session in Algiers, Algeria 10-12 November in partnership with the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs des Transports - Union Générale des Travailleurs Algériens.

Union leaders from countries across the Caribbean have come together to develop a strategy for building transport workers’ power in the region.

Over 20 activists from nine countries met in Antigua. They agreed to focus on building power through working to organise transport workers in tourism, maritime infrastructure, and the oil and gas industry.

The ITF has called for the immediate end to the state of emergency in Chile, the opening of a genuine dialogue with the unions and civil society groups, and sent international solidarity to the Chilean people in their struggle against the repressive actions of the government.

ITF inspector (Liverpool, North West England and Wales) Tommy Molloy has participated in a major anti-modern-day slavery event in Liverpool, UK.

Organised by the UK Border Force at the Merseyside Maritime and International Slavery Museum, the two-day event marked national anti-slavery day and included talks from victims of modern-day slavery, charities and non-governmental organisations, as well as the ITF.

Around 8,000 maritime workers in Nigeria will benefit from a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed by two unions.

The Nigerian Merchant Officers and Water Transport Staff Association and the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria signed the CBA with the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

The unions represent seafarers, inland waterway workers and fishers who will see improved terms and conditions.

The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is calling for the new AB 5 law in California to be the inspiration for global rules that protect ‘gig’ workers, and all workers, from exploitation and abuse, and deliver them their basic rights. 

AB 5 makes it hard for employers to misclassify workers as independent contractors. Companies typically do this as a means of avoiding their duty to provide basic rights, such as minimum pay, sick pay, overtime pay and paid leave.

Despite the name, the National Union of Seafarers Sri Lanka (NUSS) is not just for seafarers.

Since 2018 the NUSS has been organising informal dockworkers and fishers, contract logistics workers and, most recently, self-employed taxi drivers.

"Other unions didn't want to organise them because it's extremely difficult," said NUSS general secretary Palitha Atukorale, "because there is no check-off facility, and all the contractors are highly politically connected".