Thursday, September 30, 2021
Fire letter from the transport industry
Christmas threatens supply chains of “collapse”
International transport associations and trade unions clearly complain about the poor working conditions of their employees during the pandemic. Many seafarers, truck drivers and airline employees wanted to give up their jobs. There is a problem with retail.
The supply bottlenecks that have existed for months due to the shortage of containers on the world’s oceans could become even more dramatic at the end of the year. The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) as well as other branch groups aligned themselves in one open letter with clear words to the heads of state of the General Assembly of the United Nations and warned of a “collapse of the global transport system” if workers in the logistics industry were not guaranteed freedom of movement. Travel bans and other restrictions would have massively impaired the well-being of their employees during the Corona period.
In addition, the associations and unions demanded recognized vaccines for their employees. Because there is no global standard for corona vaccinations, seafarers should have been vaccinated with several vaccines, the US broadcaster CNN quotes ICS General Secretary Guy Platten. In addition, the vaccines are distributed differently around the world and therefore only about 30 percent of seafarers are vaccinated. All of this must come to an end. The burden on workers has been taking its toll “for two years,” says the letter, to which the world aviation organization IATA is one of the signatories.
All transport sectors are “labor shortages” because of the “poor treatment millions of people received during the pandemic,” it said. At the height of the crisis in 2020, 400,000 seafarers were unable to leave their ships, some working up to 18 months past the end of their original contracts, according to ICS. The paralysis of air travel and border closings made it nearly impossible to move workers from one part of the world to another or to swap crews.
At the beginning of the pandemic, many seafarers were willing to extend their contracts in order to ensure the supply of food, fuel, medicines and other consumer goods around the world. “endanger the supply chain even more”.
According to Guy Platten, fewer contracts would be signed because of the upcoming Christmas season because the workers would rather spend the holidays with the family after the hardship. The current challenges in the UK’s food and fuel supply could grow as a result. “The global supply chain is very fragile and depends just as much on seafarers for the delivery of goods [von den Philippinen] like a truck driver, “added Stephen Cotton, Secretary General of the International Transport Workers’ Federation. It is time the leaders responded to the needs of these workers.”