ITF protests Indian drayage contractor

ITF protests Indian drayage contractor    The International Transport Workers Federation is holding a press conference in Friday in Mumbai to highlight what they call attacks and intimidation of port truck drivers by a contractor hired by the global shipping giant Maersk.
   Representatives from India's Transport and Dock Workers' Union will join ITF at the conference.
   The federation said it called last month for Maersk to sever relations with the contractor, SC Thakur, over reports that drivers had been 'repeatedly' attacked in order to induce them to join another union, a union ITF has called a company-led organization.
   ITF first brought the issue to Maersk in 2007, when four drivers were allegedly abducted and beaten, and truckers who picketed on their behalf were fired by SC Thakur.
   'The violence continued in a further incident, when Thakur thugs beat workers with hockey sticks and steel rods on a company bus to persuade them to join a 'yellow' (i.e. company-run) trade union,' the ITF said in a mid-November report on the incident. 'An ITF mission to the area compiled evidence of the attacks and intimidation, and handed this over to the company, police, and to local government, in which the Thakur family are involved. A Danish parliamentary delegation also met with the TDWU in March 2009 to discuss the situation. The ITF additionally commissioned an independent human rights report, which it made available to Maersk during negotiations that it was hoped would resolve the issue.'
   A fresh round of attacks occurred in late October of this year, ITF said, with three TDWU drivers reported being attacked in their homes over testifying that the company hadn't paid into their social security/pension funds.
   APM Terminals spokesman Pieter Schaffels said the company is “investigating the matter together with ITF.” He added that APMT has required its contractors to sign a letter in which they subscribe to Maersk’s business principles and that security has been beefed up at its terminal in Nhava Sheva. APMT has several contracts with SC Thakur for various services in its Mumbai terminal, operated by a Maersk subsidiary called Gateway Terminals India.
   Though the ITF is pressing Maersk to cut ties with SC Thakur, none of the alleged assaults have been prosecuted as yet.
   'This latest bloody attack is doubly shocking given the efforts made since the first thuggish assaults two years ago,' said ITF assistant general secretary Stuart Howard. 'Since then we have sought to end this appalling situation with Maersk's cooperation. The company has taken some measures to aid these workers and hinder the reported criminal behavior of this contractor, but these clearly still fall short of what the workers on the ground want and need.
   'The ITF has credible evidence that the contractor abducted and assaulted workers for wanting to join the TDWU. Until they are allowed to do so at all four contractors (associated with Maersk's terminal in Nhava Sheva) — as is their right — they feel unprotected. They have decided that the union is their best defense. Maersk has to deliver on that right. The first, unavoidable step they have to take is to show their disgust at what has been done by showing Thakur the door. This kind of violence is unacceptable. This company is a repeat offender. We will not wait for a fourth incident to happen. The company has to go, and go now.'