GLOBAL UNIONS ANNOUNCE FIJI TRANSPORT WATCH

The ITF has asked affiliates to join in a worldwide “transport watch” to target Fijian interests and demand a return to democracy in the country.

ITF unions are being requested to monitor maritime and airline links servicing Fiji and to target cargos bound to and from the island state in order to strengthen international trade union sanctions.

The ITF, which has six affiliates in Fiji, is supporting a campaign launched by the international trade union movement this week. Unions in Australia (Fiji's main trading partner) and elsewhere are joining the campaign. Bans and limitations on air and sea transport and postal services have commenced.

The ITF today called upon affiliates worldwide to be extra vigilant and to report to the worldwide coordinating body details of any cargo and passenger transport services bound to and from Fiji. As part of the vigil, unions will report to the ITF:

Information on passenger and cargo transport services bound to and from Fiji
Information about the transport of products destined for or exported from Fiji
Information on tourism companies dealing with Fiji
Names of transport companies/vessels which have continued to operate under trade union bans

ITF Assistant General Secretary Stuart Howard said:

“ITF affiliates are already doing a really effective job of enforcing transport sanctions against Fiji. What we want to do now is to identify the gaps and plug them. We are determined to see a return to democracy in Fiji in the short term.”

Australian transport trade union targeting of Fijian shipping and airline services began on 30 May as 150 passengers were stranded at Sydney Airport. ITF affiliates delayed an Air Pacific flight to Nadi for more than two hours, eventually loading passenger luggage but imposing a strict ban on all freight and mail.

At the same time, maritime workers in Melbourne refused to load 50 containers of household items on to the Fiji-bound vessel Columbus Queensland, and workers at other docks began stockpiling cargo marked for the country.

The Direct Kookaburra, due into Australia on June 2^nd, will not be worked by Sydney dockworkers who have voted against loading it with containers for Fiji; similar conditions apply to the Kapitan Tasman, due in Melbourne on Monday, June 5^th.

The president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, Ross Wilson (formerly of the ITF-affiliated Rail and Maritime Transport Union - RMTU) has said that New Zealand trade union action could include bans on shipping and cargo services. New Zealand unions are seeking active support - including union/employer cooperation - for such bans.

In Fiji, unions have joined other groups to organise a massive rally this Friday in Lautoka to defend the Fijian Constitution and to call for the return of the legitimately elected Government and to demand the release of all hostages.

Notes:

1. Imprisoned Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudry was General Secretary of the ITF-affiliated Fiji Public Service Association from 1975 to 1999. From 1988 t0 1992 he was National Secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress.

2. ITF affiliates in Fiji are: Fiji Public Service Association, Federated Airline Staff Association, Fiji Aviation Workers' Association, Fiji Sugar and General Workers' Union, Seamen's Union of Fiji and Air Pacific Flight Attendants' Association.

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International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF)

ITF House, 49-60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS

Tel: +44 171 403 2733

Fax: +44 171 357 7871

E-mail: mail@itf.org.uk

Web site: www.itf.org.uk

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