Interview with David Cockroft, General Secretary of International Transport Federation

Q) What is the stand of ITF on the on-going piracy?

Piracy is a major problem in the world though much lesser than the problem that evolves because we finally got the major maritime nations of the world to act in concert and to put up a serious military force. This has already made a big difference in the number of hijackings taking place.

Also it is more important we now have an agreement with our ship owner counterparts that no seafarer can be forced if he decides not to go in piracy infected area and that he cannot be penalised in any way. And if they do go they get paid double the wages.

Q) What according to you needs to be done to stop the piracy?

It is all because Somalia does not have a proper government that piracy has become a thick business. When the Sirius Star was taken they got a massive $ 3 million for that. But the fact is, if you are defending the seafarers there has got to be negotiations. At the end the military authorities of the countries concerned have got to intervene.

Everybody knows where these pirate bases are. Every body knows from where they are dispatching small ships to lodge their attack. I would favour the navies going and bombing their bases, which of course could be considered a violation of a national sovereignty. But then the country does not have an effective government. However, unless the international community takes strong effective military action by killing a few pirates I don’t think it will help to solve the problem.

Q) What further course of action does ITF proposes with regard the two detained Indian Officers of V Ships in Korea?

The two officers in my view will be released quite soon when their appeal comes up for hearing. When they were detained I had visited them in Korea and met them and their wives and had talked to them. Whatever the nature of the incident, we will work to stop the criminalisation of seafarers.

Q) How is it that ITF has given recognition to two seamen’s unions in the same country? In India you have recognised NUSI and the FUSI besides the officers’ union - MUI?

Well we do it all the time. We have given recognition to multiple unions in a country all over the world and India is no exception. We recognise and accept membership from any democratically controlled trade union which represents the interest of the seafarers. In fact, today I came here for the NUSI’s function from the FSUI’s office. And we find FSUI being a well democratic controlled trade union and we wish it well. What we hope more and more is that better co-operation between NUSI and FUSI ensues. We are not going to chose sides between one good union and not so good union. What we need are unions which look after the interest of Indian seafarers both on Indian flag ships and foreign flag ships.

There is no doubt that FSUI is the majority union on the Indian flag whereas NUSI is probably a majority union on both the foreign flag and Indian flag and the agreement are held accordingly - but I am not going to be involved in this. FSUI came into the ITF with the full support of NUSI. Of course we did get involved into negotiations to achieve that. NUSI did not come with objections. FUSI came in and met with NUSI on a regular basis and as far as I am concerned is to advance the interests of the Indian seafarers.

Q) In Mumbai there are nearly 14 unions operating. Don’t you think that by giving recognition to one union and not the other it could create intra-union rivalry and in the process the interests of the seafarers could get ignored?

We are not in favour of union monopoly. Union monopoly is not in the interest of trade unions. Any union which is genuinely democratically controlled by the members which chooses to join the ITF will be welcomed. We don’t like union which are wholly depended on political parties. I don’t think that ITF is likely to accept 14 unions. At the moment in many countries around the world we have two or three or sometimes even four seafarers’ unions, they work together in the end. The section 87 of the ILO says the workers should be free to join the union of their choice. If seafarers choose to join FSUI then it is fine. If they choose to join NUSI, fine it the freedom that matters. And we continue to encourage good relationship. We will see that very good close working relation results between both those unions.