Over the more than 150 year long history of the Maritime Union, internationalism and global solidarity has been a key aspect of who we are and how we exercise workers’ power.

Since 2010, while serving as both MUA National Secretary and International Transport Workers Federation President, I have integrated the industrial, political and social campaigns of Australian maritime workers into a broader global working class agenda to help protect and lift standards for Australian maritime workers while improving the lives and working conditions of transport workers throughout the world. 

Australian maritime workers face global industrial headwinds driven by industrial, geopolitical and economic pressures which have their roots in boardrooms, shareholder AGMs and corridors of power across the globe. The major players in our industries – whether its shipping, stevedoring, public transport, towage or offshore energy – are headquartered throughout Europe, Asia, the United States and the Middle East. 

The work of the International Transport Workers Federation, both through the local inspectorate and from the ITF’s headquarters in London, as well as through the actions of all of our affiliates, is vital to ensuring that Australian maritime workers continue to enjoy an outsized level of industrial and political muscle in our own region and that we are able to sustain the standards and conditions of employment that we have earned over generations of struggle.

When you join the MUA you are not just a member of your union at your worksite, or even through your branch – membership of the MUA confers membership of a global movement of transport workers, who fight side by side for justice, safety, good pay and sustainable employment for themselves, their fellow workers, and for the generations of future maritime workers who we will one day pass our jobs on to.

In unity,

Paddy Crumlin
MUA National Secretary
ITF International President