Victory for Miami Truck Drivers

WASHINGTON, April 16: The union campaign to expose Maersk operations in Central America has scored its first victory. Only weeks after MUA national councillor Jamie Newlyn joined an international mission to expose the exploitation of port workers in Maersk ports, and the day before the union report Globalisation Run Amock, the company withdrew its lawsuits against their union.

Legal action began after Miami's port drivers' peaceful protest against abusive treatment led to a two week shutdown of Miami's port facilities.

The union asked the company to incorporate universally recognised labor rights standards into their global code of conduct and to negotiate with their unions a process for monitoring compliance when they addressed AP Moller Maersk's Board of Directors and corporate officers in Denmark.

The Maritime Union of Australia joined the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, The Danish General Workers' Union, the AFL-CIO (US labor federation), Central American Solidarity Centre and The International Transport Workers' Federation investigating conditions of truck drivers and port workers in El Salvador a mission started by murdered US Teamster's Organiser Gilberto Soto.

Soto was gunned down outside his mothers' home four days into his investigation.

This damning report Globalisation Run Amok compiled by photo journalist David Bacon, who accompanied the delegation, is available on the MUA website.