APR seamen`s unions struggle against flags of convenience.

VLADIVOSTOK, September 22 (Itar-Tass) - The seamen's unions of
countries in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) will launch a week of struggle
against flags of "convenience". The action, in which the Russian Seamen's
Union (RSU) intends to take an active part, will begin on September 27 and
continue until October 1.
Nikolai Sukhanov, chairman of the Far Eastern regional organization
(FERO) of the RSU, has told Itar-Tass that the week of struggle against
the flags of convenience will proceed in close cooperation with the
seamen's unions of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, etc. On
Wednesday the leaders of the RSU already requested their Japanese
counterparts to boycott the Panama-flagged motorship Sunrise, which plies
along the Nakhodka-Maizuru shipping line. The owner of that ship owes
$5,000 in wage arrears to the former skipper of the transport ship, a
citizen of Russia, and does not intend to repay the debt in defiance of
the ruling, dated October 5, 2009, of the Pervomaisky district court of
Vladivostok.
At the same time, the ITWF made a decision to devote more attention
during the actions of struggle against the flags of convenience to the
process of negotiations with shipowners so as to convince them of the need
to comply with the ITWF requirements to uphold the social guarantees for
seamen. Demands for arrest of motorships will be made only as a last
resort in case shipowners fully ignore the social guarantees established
by the ITWF for the seamen of the whole world.
As a result of struggle against flags of convenience within the period
from 2006 to 2009, the FERO secured repayment of more than $5 million in
wage arrears. More than 150 ships sailing under flags of convenience were
scrapped, which resulted in a sharp reduction in the accident rate of the
merchant vessels and in deaths of Russian crewmembers on board.