MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin was special guest speaker at the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Convention, in Seattle from 8-12 June 2009. He led an MUA delegation of seven, including Jamie Newlyn, SA, Robert Patchett, Victoria, Glen Wood, Sydney, Steve Cumberlidge, Brisbane, Wade Eaton, WA, Michael Ryan, Victoria and Dennis Outram, Newcastle.

The Japanese sank 18 vessels and attacked another 15, during WWII, killing 277 merchant mariners and 223 medical personnel, as well as attacking the Sydney and Newcastle coastline.

This Friday Sydney MUA members will bus to the Iranian Embassy in Canberra to join the growing protests against the

Check out the graphic new video clip against the exploitation of child labour produced by the International Trade Union Confederation

OUTDATED FIGURES IGNORE REAL IMPROVEMENT IN THE RELIABILITY OF SYDNEY FERRIES

This year the Blake Society has teamed up with the MUA to award a $5,000 Blake Prize for Human Justice. This new award category will acknowledge and promote the work of artists highlighting issues of justice.

The Sydney Branch has formed a Sister port relationship with our ILWU comrades in the Port of Seattle.

2008 was another difficult and often dangerous year for trade unionists around the world, according to this year's ITUC Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights Violations.

The report details abuses of fundamental workers' rights in 143 countries.

76 trade unionists were killed due to their actions to defend workers' rights, and many more were attacked physically or subjected to harassment, intimidation or arrest by the authorities.  The report makes for depressing - but necessary - reading.

The film, Abandoned, but not forgotten: the plight of Burma’s migrant fishers, has been awarded “Best labour film short of 2009” by the Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival, which will take place on 16 June in Geneva, Switzerland.

The film exposes the brutal treatment of migrant workers from Burma employed in Thailand’s fishing industry and outlines the steps seafarers’ unions are taking to expose these crimes and help the workers win basic rights.

A list of the film line-up is on the festival’s website at: www.labourfilmshorts.org

In an extraordinary threat of industrial tyranny Tourism and Transport Managing Director, Chris Brown, today described the negotiated settlement with Sydney Ferries as "a token" and that "if Sydney Ferries' management were serious, they would have imposed these industrial reforms long ago."

"In view of  his  rejection of this negotiated settlement, the Maritime Union of Australia  asks Mr Brown  what  working arrangements he believes would be appropriate for a privatised Sydney Ferries?", MUA Sydney Branch Secretary Warren Smith said.