crew change crisis

The International Chamber of Shipping and its global network of national member associations and the International Transport Workers’ Federation and its 215 seafarers’ unions are calling on seafarers across the world to sound their ships’ horns when in port at 12.00 local time on International Workers’ Day on 1 May 2020.

Three Greek seafarers and 22 of their shipmates on two bulk carriers at anchor in the Port of Djibouti are among a rising tide of crew abandoned around the world at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Special Tripartite Committee of the Maritime Labour Convention issued a statement last week that accurately frames the current situation:

Joint statement from the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

About 90 per cent of global trade is moved by maritime transport, which is the lifeblood of the global economy, and is dependent on the world’s 2 million seafarers and marine personnel who operate the world’s merchant ships.

Covid-19 restrictions are storing up trouble for seafarers and global supply chains

LONDON - 7 APRIL 2020: The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Transport Workers’

 On March 29, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that that it was, “important that Australia does the right thing about those who have fallen into our care to ensure that I can say with great moral authority that Australians are doing the right thing, and we would ask you to do the right thing.”
 

The life of a seafarer: the “invisible” workforce that keeps world trade moving.

Ninety per cent of the world’s goods are transported by sea. On any given day, there are more than 1.6 million seafarers working onboard 70,000 vessels worldwide. These men and women are transporting cargo and goods essential to businesses and people’s everyday lives that will sustain communities through the coronavirus pandemic.

On the day of the AP Moller Maersk annual general meeting, the ITF has made a statement to the company AGM following up its calls for action in the wider transport industries during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ITF and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have jointly written an open letter to the United Nations agencies for the global maritime industry calling on them to recognise the vital role of seafarers in this extraordinary crisis.

The explosive spread of coronavirus has led to more and more countries introducing and imposing travel restrictions in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19. Global shipping has been hit hard by the coronavirus with disruption to the industry reverberating through global supply chains and throughout the global economy.