The UK Prime Minister may have the regal touch in northern England, but he’s been wrong-footed on the constitutional challenges posed by the Celtic Alliance of first ministers from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, argues KENNY MacASKILL
Emaciated Indian seafarers stiffen resolve for a minimum pay rise
Trade union negotiations have won a much-needed pay rise for seafarers. Nautilus International leader MARK DICKINSON reports
A FEW days before the seafarers’ minimum wage talks started in Switzerland, I received a troubling phone call.
It came from our Liverpool-based ship inspector. His International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) inspector duties had taken him to a cargo vessel moored at Bromborough on the Mersey.
There he had found two teenage Indian sailors who appeared to be malnourished, underpaid and terrorised by the rest of the crew.
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More than 100 coastal nations use cabotage laws to protect domestic shipping and seafarer jobs. SASCHA MEIJER of Nautilus International says it’s time for Britain to follow suit


