ITF assisted Russian-Ukrainian crew to come back home

As part of the “Enough is Enough!” campaign Russian and French Inspectorates of the International Transport Workers'  Federation (ITF)  assisted Russian-Ukrainian crew of the  m/v "Bourbon Liberty" to leave the ship and come back home.

The seafarers asked the ITF Inspection Russia for help when the tug was anchoring  in Ghana. They reported that their contracts had expired, but the repatriation issue was not discussed. Moreover, the French company, operating without any collective agreement, intended to cut crew salaries  due to the difficult economic situation caused by the pandemic. The crew, naturally, did not want to continue working on board. 

At this stage, the ITF Inspection in France got involved and took upon itself a correspondence with the shipowner. Finally, as a result of the concerted actions,  the company arranged the crew change. It was not possible to repatriate the crew members from Ghana as the borders were closed, so another vessel with the change approached the tug "Bourbon Liberty", took on board  Russians and Ukrainians and delivered them to Abidjan. No they all have already returned to their families.

We recall, that on June, 15, the ITF and its affiliated unions launched the “Enough is Enough!” campaign stating they will assist hundreds of thousands of seafarers to exercise their right to stop working upon the termination of their contracts, leave ships and return home. In addition, the campaign is aiming to force governments and public authorities to recognize crew members as key workers and to facilitate the rotation of crews.