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.”
Last week, the government activated its two military hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and the USNS Comfort, which will be docked in Los Angeles and New York City.
The two 1000-bed military hospitals ships will provide California and New York additional hospital capacity, and vital relief to the both state’s hospitals that are reaching capacity due to the outbreak of Covid-19.
As the coronavirus pandemic has deepened, we have seen images on news reports across the globe of empty shelves in supermarkets as ‘panic buying’ has sparked shortages of food and medicines.
Message from ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton
Dear friends,
Covid-19 is issuing the world an unprecedented collective challenge. Across the world – workers, employers and governments - must work together to minimise the damage done.
Transport workers are the lifeblood of a global economy linking supply chains and keeping the world moving, and vital to successfully responding to the challenge of Covid-19.
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 impact of rapid and worldwide spread of Covid-19 throughout the maritime industry, in particular the cruise ship industry, has made global headlines since the outbreak of the global 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.
