Leonard Neill
'NO PAY - no sail' was the message handed down to port authorities in Walvis Bay last week by the 59 Russian crew of a fishing trawler when they went on strike but stayed aboard the vessel so that the frozen fish cargo in the holds could not be off-loaded.
The vessel, the Igloo Star registered in Honduras, remained berthed near the Commercial Cold Storage facility for a week until the crew were paid their outstanding wages for seven months. This was after the International Transport Federation (ITF) headquarters in London had arranged for its Cape-Town based representative, Cassiem Augustus, to fly to Walvis Bay and intervene.
With the crew satisfied they had received their full outstanding salaries, they permitted the 120 tons of frozen fish to be offloaded - and the Igloo Star set sail again last Monday with the same crew aboard.
Surprisingly they had stated in their strike demands that they would not leave the vessel or allow the cargo to be unloaded until they had been paid out and had been provided with air tickets to fly home.
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