"It's great to remember happy faces"

Last year proved to a surprise for people of almost all countries and representatives of most professions. It also greatly changed the work of trade unions, which also had to adapt to new realities in order to solve seafarers’ problems that did not arise before. For example, claims for repatriation in the light of the crew change crisis. However, in Vladivostok and some other ports of the Far East almost from the start of the pandemic the seafarers used to be changed successfully. So that only with the direct participation of the primary trade union organization of the SUR in Vladivostok more than 30 crewmembers were repatriated.

«From the very beginning of pandemic until the summer of last year, both on signers and off signers had to spend two weeks in quarantine.This did not last long, and soon the seafarers could directly depart from the vessels without any isolation. It took only 2-3 days for arranging visa. Normally it took 2-3 weeks for submitting all documents before joining the vessel and then local agents could get visa. The on signers had to submit the result of PCR test, off signers had to be tested upon discharging,- said the chairman of the trade union committee Petr Osichanskiy. 

At the same time, the Far Eastern ports of Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Slavyanka, and Zarubino were open to both Russian and foreign seafarers who needed repatriation. Needless to say that a lot of complaints and requests for assistance in repatriation came from seafarers in connection with the expiration of contracts, which sometimes exceeded 15 and even 20 months. «Sometimes the requests looked like a kind of hysteria. One of the seafarers, for example, stopped working and threatened to throw himself overboard if he was not signed off. I had to work as a psychotherapist, and then, after a month and a half, I still managed to repatriate him. Often seafarers did not wish to stay on board, even in spite of good conditions and large salaries.», -Petr Osichanskiy said. «It's great to remember the happy faces of 16 Croats, who had been discharged from the m/v Peristil in Vladivostok on 21 January of the current year after the 5 months on board», – said the deputy chairman of the trade union committee Alexandra Zgorzhelskaya.

In 2020, representatives of the trade union boarded more than 100 ships, and held four solidarity actions with crewmembers on board of Russian and foreign ships. It should be noted that even during the pandemic, educational work concerning the rights of seafarers did not stop. For example, Petr Osichanskiy has for many years been teaching advanced training courses under the MLC 2006 for harbor masters, representatives of the  port state control, authorized persons of shipping companies and, of course, seafarers. «

Thanks to this workshop, our organization successfully cooperates with the Maritime port authorities which provides us with reports of PSC inspections of problematic vessels so that we can more effectively assist the seafarers,» said Alexandra Zgorzhelskaya.

The seminars were attended by 302 people, and for the first time ship’s engineers participated in them.

New challenges have not spared the union from old problems that change little over the years, in particular, the acute issues of union membership. «I probably won't say anything new, admitting that so far the main and conscientious members are those who joined the trade union by serving on board the vessels covered by collective agreements. The rest of the people are just random fellow travelers who become the union’s members when a problem arises," -said Alexandra Zgorzhelskaya.