The International Seafarers' Federation (ISF) was a

global union federation A global union federation (GUF) is an international List of federations of trade unions, federation of national trade unions organizing in specific industry sectors or occupational groups. Historically, such federations in the social democratic t ...

bringing together

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

representing

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

s. Until the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, sailors were represented by the

International Transport Workers' Federation The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic global union federation of transport workers' trade unions, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership o ...

(ITF), but unions representing sailors became increasingly convinced that the ITF was dominated by the interests of dockers and railway workers. The leadership of the

National Union of Seamen The National Union of Seamen (NUS) was the principal trade union of merchant seafarers in the United Kingdom from the late 1880s to 1990. In 1990, the union amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen to form the National Union of Rail, ...

(NUS, active in the UK) and the

International Seamen's Union The International Seamen's Union (ISU) was an American maritime trade union which operated from 1892 until 1937. In its last few years, the union effectively split into the National Maritime Union and Seafarer's International Union. The early yea ...

(ISU, active in the United States) were also unhappy that the ITF was increasingly sympathetic to socialism, and both unions left the international in 1917.{{cite book , last1=Reinalda , first1=Bob , title=The International Transportworkers Federation, 1914-1945 , date=1997 , publisher=Stichting beheer IISG , pages=77–138 In 1918, the ISU and NUS formed the International Seafarers' Federation, working with unions from Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and several other countries. It was led by secretary Chris Damm, of the Belgian union. This left the ITF with few sailors in its membership. In June 1920, the ISF met at an International Conference of Seafarers, in Genoa. The ISU viewed its greatest achievement as the Seamen's Act of 1915, and argued that the international should campaign to adopt similar laws throughout Europe. However, the NUS opposed the idea, and it was defeated. Later in 1920, the Danish Seamen's Union went on strike, but both the NUS and the ISU opposed the action, to the extent that the ISU passed money collected for the strikers to the ISF, rather than the union. This alienated the Scandinavian unions from the ISF. The ITF took the opportunity to organised a seafarers' conference. This was held in 1921, the Scandinavian unions rejoining the ITF and building up its seafarers' section once more. In 1922, the ISF discussed merging into the ITF, but the ISU stated that it would not be part of any merger, as it opposed being in the same organisation as dockers. The ISF survived into the 1930s, but undertook little further activity, and the seafarers' unions eventually rejoined the ITF.

References

Global union federations Seafarers' trade unions Trade unions established in 1918 Trade unions disestablished in the 1930s