From October 4th through the 8th, NSU in collaboration with the Indian Union: NUSI, the Italian Union: FIT-CISL and the ITF organized a Basic Trade Union Cruise Seminar in India for the 2nd year in a row. This year, the seminar took place just outside Cochin in southern India.
Around 40 Seafarers from various cruise lines such as NCL, RCCL, Silverseas, P&O, Louis Cruise Lines and others participated in the Seminar. The participants held all types of positions onboard, varying from Deck & Engine, HR and both higher and lower ranking positions in the Hotel/Catering Departments.
The goal is to educate Seafarers about Basic Trade Union awareness, Harassment & Bullying, health and HIV-Aids. In addition other issues are raised by the Seafarers regarding their CBA and other topics relevant to crew members working in the cruise industry. A separate one day event is held solely for the female participants prior to the main seminar with the aim to empower women Seafarers, inform them about their rights onboard and how to "make their voices heard" in an otherwise male dominated industry.
The evualuations we received from the Seafarers at the end of each day were very positive and is proof that the seminar is useful and important to the Seafarers. Therefore we plan to continue holding seminars in India annually, eventually adding an Intermediate Seminar next year and Advanced Seminar later. The Indermediate and Advanced Seminars are only available to those who have attended a Basic Seminar and Intermediate Seminar respectively. Next years Basic and Intermediate Seminars will most likely take place in the North of India in the City of Chandigarh sometime in October 2012.
If you are on vacation/leave at that time and are interested in attending, please click here, fill out the form and return it to nsumiami@nsu.org.
We will keep your name on the list of interested Seafarers and get back to you once we have secured a suitable venue and the dates have been finalized.
In our experience, the seminars are popular so we encourage interested crew members to contact us as early as possible.
