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Secondly, since collective bargaining agreements are normally negotiated with trade unions of the flag-State, the ship owners were able to escape pressure from the much stronger unions in established maritime countries in the North by recruiting more seafarers from the new labor supply countries of the South.
Nautilus International
A Unique Cross-border Merger
It is a product of a unique cross-border union merger, initially between the Federatie van Werknemers in de Zeevaart (FWZ) of Netherlands and the UK’s National Union of Marine, Aviation and Shipping Transport Officers (NUMAST). It came into existence in May 2009 after nearly a decade of negotiations and preparation. The reason behind this merger was to become a localized and functional response to the decline experienced by the two unions in terms of membership and associated financial and political influence. They wantedto create an instrument through which the two unions, and any others which would be interested in subsequently joining, would pool resources to create a larger, stronger and more influential entity with
capacity to provide a voice for maritime professionals nationally and internationally.To this end, the mergersucceeded in that the pooled membership amounted to 25,000 in 2009 and almost 26,000 in 2011 when UNIA, the Swiss union, joined Nautilus.
Conclusion
In examining union renewal, many experts have suggested that cross-border union mergers should be widely practiced considering the environment in which labor operates currently. There are a number of impediments for unions in establishing such bonds across borders but this is the need of the hour as now, there are different national labor segments which compete for job opportunities and fight over ‘stolen jobs’. Also, this situation is not unique to shipping. It can be seen thatworkers in other sectors where global competition is flourishing (such as finance and IT) are also keenly aware of their own vulnerability. Trade unions will have to consider more of such models such as E-Unions depending upon the industry and the type of workers involved.
Vikas Kumar
Institute - FMS, Delhi
FMS Scholastic Council