Global Petition to Fight Piracy - Sign Today!

(At our last Steering Committee meeting, we decided to support this petition and encourage others to do the same.)

Today, almost 400 merchant mariners are being held at gunpoint as hostages of Somalian pirates.  Currently, 17 ships are in peril.  In the last two years, over 1,800 sailors have faced gunmen who have lost hope and a sense of humanity.  Four sailors have been murdered. 

This is a workers’ rights issue, which we all must face, and we must resolve to find real solutions to piracy issues globally.  We no longer can afford to just throw money at the problem when lives are so dramatically affected.  The U.S. now has 107 Somalian pirates in maximum security prisons in the U.S., each costing $160,000 per year with sentences ranging up to 27 years.  We now have paid Kenya approximately $10,000,000 to handle future arrests.  U.S. Executive Order No. 13536 states that ransoms cannot be paid by other countries without U.S. approval, taking extra months of red tape.  Sailors usually are held 3-5 months in captivity. 

The International Transport Workers’ Federation is demanding a global response to piracy.  We need your support.  Your voice will make a difference at the International Maritime Organization World Maritime Day on 23 September 2010.  Around the world, 500,000 union and non-union working families will join with your voice to help put an end to piracy. 

Please go to www.endpiracypetition.org.  With just a couple of clicks, your name, city, and country, you can make a difference. 

An unprecedented coalition of organizations, from trade unions to ship owner associations and political entities, has joined forces to back this global e-petition, demand­ing concrete action to end the piracy that is putting lives at risk and threatening world trade.

For further information and support action, go to www.endpiracynow.org or www.itf.seafarers.org. 

As a union brother and fellow humanitarian, I implore you to forward this to all organizations and personal contacts

Martin D. Larson

ILWU No. 81952