Some 8,500 AMOSUP members and their families, along with other unions, social partners and international guests, enjoyed the day-long celebration at the Mall of Asia MOA grounds.
Following holy mass, seafarers and maritime students formed a human ‘ship wheel’, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. In the evening, guests were treated to a dinner followed by a star-studded concert at the MOA Arena, during which union members who entered a singing contest also participated.
AMOSUP, which represents over 100,000 seafarers, is renowned for its four seamen’s hospitals and has been at the forefront in providing voluntary HIV counselling and testing sessions for cruise ship workers.
Steve Cotton said: “The outstanding services AMOSUP provides – first under its founder, Gregorio Oca, and now under Conrad Oca – are among the best in the world. The training offered at such centres as its Maritime Academy of the Asia and the Pacific is first-rate. And its legal and medical finance services look after the needs of both their male and female members.
“I have heard today what the union means to seafarers and cadets in the Philippines and am so proud that AMOSUP belongs to the ITF family.”
During the day, Cotton talked to cadets and met with Peter Hinchliffe, secretary general of the International Chamber of Shipping, and Giles Heimann, former secretary general, International Maritime Employers' Committee Ltd, who was recently appointed corporate director of human resources for seafarers at Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement. Cotton also discussed with the Philippine ITF affiliates national co-ordinating committee the ITF priority programs for Asia Pacific transport workers.
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