Shipping woes worsen: unions

Several unions representing shipping workers from around the world banded together to warn of a “global transport-systems collapse” due to labor shortages and pandemic-related restrictions on trade — as already unprecedented delays are set to escalate heading into the busy holiday season.

In an open letter, the World Road Transport Organization, the International Air Transport Association, the International Chamber of Shipping and the International Transport Workers’ Federation said their members have been “failed by governments and taken for granted by their officials” during the pandemic.

Failure to address key matters led to “unprecedented disruptions and global delays and shortages on essential goods,” the unions said Wednesday, and “the delays look set to worsen ahead of Christmas and continue into 2022.”

“Fragmented travel rules and restrictions” kept nearly half a million seafarers from leaving their ships, the group said, with some working for as long as 18 months over their initial contracts.

“Flights have been restricted and aviation workers have faced the inconsistency of border, travel, restrictions, and vaccine restrictions/requirements,” the letter said. “Additional and systemic stopping at road borders has meant truck drivers have been forced to wait, sometimes weeks, before being able to . . . return home.”

The group — whose collective industries account for more than $20 trillion of world trade annually — requested a meeting with the WHO and the International Labor Organization “to identify solutions before global transport systems collapse.”