Oleg Grygoriuk,Chairman of the Marine Transport Workers' Trade Union (MTWTU), met with Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, the Head of the Committee on International Relations in the Norwegian Parliament. Eriksen Søreide has played significant roles in the Norwegian government, notably as the Foreign Minister from 2017 to 2021, becoming the first woman to hold this position. Previously, she served as the Minister of Defence from 2013 to 2017. As a member of the Conservative Party, she was elected to the Parliament from Oslo in 2005.
During the meeting, Oleg Grygoriuk shared the current realities faced by the Ukrainian people, focusing on the challenges encountered by Ukrainian seafarers. The war initiated by russia has resulted in some seafarers losing the opportunity to work on foreign vessels abroad. Others, who were overseas at the onset of the aggression, have not returned to their homeland for obvious reasons, creating additional financial hardships for the seafarers and their families.
"Despite the challenges and all the hardships time has prepared for us, the Union continues to work tirelessly for our members," Oleg Grygoriuk remarked. "At the beginning of the war, when everyone was bewildered and uncertain about the future, MTWTU, with the support of ITF Seafarers' Trust, organized 21 free evacuation trips to Romania, and 545 people were able to move to a safe place. In collaboration with ILO, we were also able to provide accommodation with meals for refugees at the Izmail International Seamen’s Club.
Over the two years of war, MTWTU has provided financial assistance to about 6,000 seafarers. Furthermore, our Union became an exclusive partner of ISWAN, which allowed us to financially support an additional 480 seafarers.
We actively engage partners, colleagues, and friends from around the world, feeling their solidarity and support, for which we are very grateful.
ETF has delivered hundreds of kilograms of humanitarian aid to our Union members, including clothing, footwear, hygiene products, and food. Later, ITF and ETF united into a Solidarity Fund to assist Ukrainian transport workers – their member organizations. We distributed 4,500 kits for seafarers with food, hygiene products, and stationery for children, and 1,600 food and hygiene kits for MTWTU's shore-based organization workers. We are currently running another campaign initiated by us: with the assistance of the ITF-ETF Solidarity Fund, 1,500 food kits will be distributed to transport workers, MTWTU's members.
We also received help during blackouts: generators, solar panels, heaters, and portable chargers. This allowed the continuous operation of MTWTU local organizations, so members could seek help if needed.
With the support of our brothers from the SEKO union (Sweden), we delivered 550 food kits for the crew of PJSC "Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company." Our friends from the German union ver.di assisted 600 families of Ukrainian seafarers and dockers in Germany. Canadian dockworkers from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) expressed their solidarity support to Ukrainian colleagues from the Danube region, who are working under extremely difficult conditions due to the war in Ukraine.
On MTWTU's initiative, warm clothing was purchased for dockworkers at the Izmail and Reni ports.
Another important achievement was our cooperation with ITF Seafarers' Trust, within which cadets from Kherson State Maritime Academy study abroad at the Lithuanian Maritime Academy, and cadets from the National University "Odesa Maritime Academy" also received support.
And, of course, we continued our social events for seafarers' families, covering about 4,000 people.
As you can see, our work does not stop for a minute, and there is only more to come!"
During the meeting, Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide expressed her sincere support for our struggle and highlighted the importance of MTWTU's work during such a difficult time for the country.
