Three ITF affiliates have joined the federation in praising the actions of firefighters and the crew on board British Airways flight 2276 in evacuating 172 people when the plane caught fire before take-off this morning at Las Vegas airport.

ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) maritime coordinator Jacqueline Smith will reveal the organisation’s experience of the Maritime Labour Convention’s second year in operation, in a speech at the International Shipping Conference tonight in London.

A global conference looking at the issues, implications and next steps around the workers’ capital agenda is being hosted by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) this week.

In order to protect passengers from illegal transport operators and to safeguard the employment of thousands of taxi drivers, the municipality of Rio de Janeiro on 15 August approved a bill banning Uber from operating in the city.

On Friday a demonstration led by the ITF-affiliated SIELAS union (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Aviación Civil y Similares) was held outside DHL’s offices in Panama City. The protestors, joined by an international ITF delegation of DHL union leaders, denounced the company’s anti-union actions, and called for respect for trade union rights and the lifting of a six-month suspension of negotiations on a collective agreement.

The ITF Seafarers' Trust - which often pays for vehicles for seafarers' welfare bodies and missions - has announced it will be surveying their uses and effectiveness so as to use its grants as effectively as possible. The Trust will be partnering in the programme with the International Christian Maritime Association (ICMA) and the North American Maritime Ministry Association (NAMMA).

Seafarers’ Rights International (SRI) and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) are backing a new book on the plight of fishers that is due for publication tomorrow, Thursday 30 July.

Members of Colombia’s SNTT (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores del Transporte) union took to the streets of five of the country’s cities yesterday to build union membership and worker confidence ahead of negotiations with the company tomorrow.

ITF youth leaders meeting in in Washington DC, USA last week participated in the global action day by US cabin crew union AFA-CWA for a fair contract at United Airlines.

Tomorrow’s FC Barcelona presidential elections are likely to seal the fate of any further sponsorship deal by Qatar Airways (QR), according to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF). The ITF says that the gulf between the airline’s treatment of staff and the club’s strong social ethos is now so huge that it will figure in the choice of president by its 70,000 members, who will go on to vote in October on any further sponsorship.

A union training facility in Washington is the setting for the ITF young transport workers’ summer school this week.

Discussion documents on the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) published by Wikileaks reveal a continuing threat to seafarers’ wages and conditions should the agreement be adopted, the (International Transport Workers’ Federation) said today.