CROATIAN SEAMEN'S, PORT WORKERS' UNIONS ON RESULTS OF ITF CAMPAIGN

RIJEKA, Sept 12 (Hina) - In a campaign against sub-standard ships, inspectors with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) inspected 12 ships in the northern and southern Adriatic seaports of Rijeka and Ploce between 8 and 17 September, establishing that cargo on two ships was managed by seamen instead of by port workers. #L# The campaign launched by the ITF, the world umbrella seamen's association, was this year joined by port workers' unions. #L# The head of the Croatian Seamen's Trade Union, Vladimir Svalina, told reporters on Friday that the aim of the campaign was to make sure that cargo was managed exclusively by trained port workers instead of seamen and other port employees. He opposed the proposal of the European Port Directive that such work be legalised. The ITF campaign lasted from 8 to 12 September, with central protests of seamen and port workers having taken place in Brussels. Some other irregularities were detected on three other ships in Rijeka and Ploce ports, such as employers' disregard for the collective work agreement and failure to sign it. Workers at the Ploce port on September 9 held an hour-long strike to warn about these irregularities. Workers at the Rijeka port have not organised any strikes because they have started negotiations on a new collective agreement, union officials said. They called on seamen not to perform port services, explaining that it is still not defined who is responsible in case of injury of seamen managing ship cargo. Port workers unions have been making efforts for two years to have ports introduce cards which would grant port workers the status of professional workers, as is the case in other European ports. (hina) rml