Giving Compass' Take:

• Alastair Bland explains why labor advocates are mobilizing to increase the pay of mariners, who are integral to global trade and receive low pay. 

• How can philanthropy support efforts to improve the lives of mariners? 

• Latn about a new sustainable supply chain technology. 

The world’s mariners are protected by what may be the only minimum wage established across an entire global industry. Now, labor advocates are mobilizing to increase their pay and make consumers more aware of working conditions on the ships that move the goods they use every day.

More than 1.6 million seafarers work on international merchant ships around the world, according to the International Chamber of Shipping. Together, these laborers – mostly men from the Philippines, China, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and Ukraine – handle about 90 percent of global trade and also play a role in preventing marine pollution. But they’re a largely invisible workforce.

Nautilus International, a mariners’ labor union based in London, and the International Transport Workers’ Federation are calling for a $50 per month seafarers’ raise – an action to be discussed at a meeting of the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, scheduled originally for this summer and now moved to November.

According to ILO data, basic rates for seafarers have been increased every few years since 1970. However, the unions say the current recommended basic rate is pitifully low – just $614 per month – and that a raise is overdue. With many workers on ships clocking more than 90 hours per week of heavy lifting and other tedious, dangerous labor, by payday it can come to as little as $2–$3 an hour, they note. But the shipping industry is likely to resist a wage increase.

Read the full article about fair transport by Alastair Bland at News Deeply.