Crew secures over $100,000 in unpaid wages in Drogheda Port row

It was a case of international solidarity in Drogheda port last week when SIPTU backed the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) in a demand that nine seafarers from Eastern Europe be paid $102,735 in wages due since May. The men, who are from The Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania made a distress call to the ITF, but the Dutch-Antilles registered vessel, the mv Julia, had set sail for Ireland before it could be boarded in Antwerp.

The ITF co-ordinator for Ireland and Britain, Ken Fleming, caught up with it in Drogheda, where it was taking on board a 5,000 ton consignment of cement for Belgium. He boarded it on Thursday, 13th September, and found that the men had not been paid for four months and were dependent on a daily food allowance controlled by the Captain.

He told the company, Transship Management, that the ship faced arrest if the funds were not paid immediately. However the earliest an arrest could happen was the following Monday. When the company failed to honour a commitment to pay by 1.00 p.m. on Thursday, the crew decided not to load any cargo onto the vessel. The crew’s decision was supported by SIPTU.

Faced with the prospect of the mv Julia sitting in the Boyne Channel with a crew refusing to sail her or finish loading her, Transshipment Management bowed to the inevitable. The crew was paid its outstanding wages in full at 4.30 p.m. on Friday.

“This was a great example of the worker solidarity we have been building gradually in the ports”, Ken Fleming said afterwards. “While we could have had the ship arrested it would not have been possible until the following week. In the meantime the crew would have been physically isolated, totally dependent on the company for food and open to the possibility of pressure from the employer to cave in.”

Ken, who is himself a SIPTU official on secondment with the ITF, said: “I want to give a special thanks to local SIPTU Organiser Jimmy Coughlan, who didn’t hesitate to come out to the vessel and help resolve the dispute. SIPTU Health Division Organiser and Mayor of Drogheda, Paul Bell, made it clear he too would lend his support and that added to the pressure on the other side as well.”