From June 25 to June 28, the second seminar for cruise industry workers from Eastern Europe was held in Odessa. The event was organized under the auspices of the ITF by its affiliates from Norway, Germany, Italy and Ukraine – the largest trade unions of NSU, ver.di, FIT-CISL and MTWTU.
On June 26, male participants joined the women’s group, and together they discussed cultural differences between people of different nationalities, shared life situations arising from lack of intercultural understanding, talked about various forms of bullying, sexual harassment in the workplace, discrimination and ways to counter it. In the afternoon there was a session devoted to financial and budget planning. At the final session of the day, the seminar participants were told about the trade union movement, its core functions and the benefits of the union membership.
The next day of the seminar was devoted to the functions of the International Labor Organization and the International Maritime Organization; the participants also learnt of the ‘Flags of Convenience’ and studied provisions of collective bargaining agreement. Another session that day was devoted to the Ukrainian union: MTWTU First Vice Chairman Oleg Grygoriuk told the seminar participants about the activities, priorities, main tasks and goals of the union, as well as of successful large-scale projects and plans for the future.
