The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic

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 ...

of transport workers'

trade union 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 ...

s, founded in 1896. In 2017 the ITF had 677 member organizations in 149 countries, representing a combined membership of 19.7 million transport workers in all industrial transport sectors: civil aviation, dockers, inland navigation, seafarers, road transport, railways, fisheries, urban transport and tourism. The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies that take decisions affecting jobs, employment conditions or safety in the transport industry.

Organisation

The ITF works to improve the lives of transport workers globally, encouraging and organising international solidarity among its network of affiliates. The ITF is allied with the

International Trade Union Confederation The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC; ; ; ) is the world's largest trade union federation. History The federation was formed on 1 November 2006 out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) a ...

(ITUC). Any independent trade union with members in the transport industry is eligible for membership of the organization. The ITF represents the interests of transport workers' unions in bodies such as the

International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is one of the firs ...

(ILO), the

International Maritime Organization The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...

(IMO) and the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

(ICAO). The organization also informs and advises unions about developments in the transport industry in other countries or regions of the world, and organises international solidarity actions when member unions in one country are in conflict with employers or government. The ITF's headquarters is located in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and it has offices in

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and

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. The International Transport Workers' Federation is governed by its constitution. The Constitution states that ITF is run b
an elected executive board
meeting twice a year. The ITF executive is highly concerned about the effects of

globalisation Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

, the increased concentration of ownership of international transport companies,

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

, public service improvement, the

privatisation Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

of large formerly state-run transport enterprises and automation and the future of work. It notes that the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

(WTO) plays a central role in this process and considers it necessary for unions to exert what pressure they can on the WTO to respect social and labour standards in its agreements. It is particularly concerned about the effect that the WTO's

General Agreement on Trade in Services The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which entered into force in January 1995 as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. The treaty was created to extend the multilateral trading ...

(GATS) could have on transport workers by breaking down national transport regulations. It considers it important to oppose the inclusion of transport-related services in the GATS. It considers that the major international finance organisations, including the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

and regional development banks, have had a "serious negative impact both on the quality of transport services and on the employment and working conditions of transport workers." It also sees the

neoliberal Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...

economic policies being promoted by regional blocks including the EU,

MERCOSUR The Southern Common Market (commonly known by abbreviation ''Mercosur'' in Spanish and ''Mercosul'' in Portuguese) is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full me ...

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

, NAFTA, and SADC as being generally injurious to transport workers. It believes it is necessary to create solidarity networks between trade unions, and to improve the coordination between ITF sections, so that effective responses can be made to large multinational business entities which span several regions and many sectors of workers.

History

The ITF was founded in 1896 at a meeting in London, organised by Havelock Wilson,

Ben Tillett Benjamin Tillett (11 September 1860 – 27 January 1943) was a British socialist, trade union leader and politician. He was a leader of the "new unionism" of 1889, that focused on organizing unskilled workers. He played a major role in foundin ...

, Tom Mann and Charles Lindley. Initially named the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers, in 1898, it absorbed the International Commission for Railwaymen, and so renamed itself as the "International Transport Workers' Federation". In 1904, its headquarters moved to Germany, then in 1919 to Amsterdam, where it grew, under the leadership of Edo Fimmen. By 1939, with

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

imminent, its headquarters moved to

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in England, then to London, where they remain. The federation's first post-war conference was held in 1946 in Zurich, where a new constitution was adopted. In 1949, it established a section for civil aviation workers, and in 1974 one for workers in tourism. It has campaigned heavily against flags of convenience, and in the late 1990s, the ITF operated a floating museum, the ''mV Global Mariner'', which sailed around the world. The vessel was originally built in England in 1979 as the mV Ruddbank, and sank in 2000 off the

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

n coast after colliding with a container ship. The ITF holds a congress every five years in accordance with th
ITF Constitution
Rule IV. The congress has supreme authority within the ITF. The 40th Congress was held in Vancouver, Canada, from 14 to 21 August 2002. The 41st Congress was held in Durban, South Africa in August, 2006
The 42nd Congress
was held in Mexico City from 5–12 August 2010
The 43d Congress
- from 10–16 August 2014 in Sofia, Bulgaria
The 44th Congress was held in Singapore
from 14–20 October 2018. The ITF set up an Arab world and Iran network to deal with, amongst other matters, what it described as the "cancer" of abandonment of ships. Following the 2013 abandonment of MV ''Rhosus'' in

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Lebanon, the unloading and storing for years of its explosive cargo, and the ensuing catastrophic explosion on 4 August 2020, the network coordinator said "The flood of calls to ITF in the Arab region has never stopped. Since we created the network and seafarers ecameaware of us, the numbers of calls are going up and up". In September 2023, Russian authorities designated the Federation as an "undesirable" organisation.

Affiliates

In January 2020, the following unions were affiliated to the ITF:

Leadership

General Secretaries

:1896:

:1896: Robert Peddie :1896: Tom Chambers :1904:

:1904: Hermann Jochade :1919: Edo Fimmen :1942: Jacobus Oldenbroek :1950: Omer Becu :1960: Pieter de Vries :1965: Hans Imhof :1968: Charles Blyth :1977: Harold Lewis :1993: David Cockcroft :2014: Stephen Cotton

Presidents

:1893: Tom Mann :1901: Tom Chambers :1904:

:1904: Hermann Jochade :1920:

Robert Williams Robert, Rob, Robbie, Bob or Bobby Williams may refer to: Architecture * Train %26 Williams#Robert Edmund Williams, Robert Edmund Williams (1874–1960), Canadian-American architect * Robert Williams (architect) (1848–1918), Welsh architect a ...

:1925: Charlie Cramp :1933: Charles Lindley :1946: John Benstead :1947: Omer Becu :1950: Robert Bratschi :1954:

Arthur Deakin Arthur Deakin (11 November 1890 – 1 May 1955) was a prominent British trade unionist who was acting general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union from 1940 and then general secretary from 1945 to 1955. Background Arthur ...

:1955: Hans Jahn :1958: Frank Cousins :1960: Roger Dekeyzer :1962: Frank Cousins :1965: Hans Düby :1971: Fritz Prechtl :1986: Jim Hunter :1994: Eike Eulen :1998: Umraomal Purohit :2006: Randall Howard :2010: Paddy Crumlin

Notes

External links

ITF official website

Catalogue of the ITF archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{Authority control Trade unions established in 1896 International organisations based in London Global union federations Trade unions based in London Organizations listed in Russia as undesirable