Seamen of Moldova's ship are on strike in Novorossisk demanding salaries

In the city of Novorossisk, Krasnodar Territory, nine members of the crew of the trading ship "REF-607", sailing under the guise of Moldova, refuse to get ashore for the second week already. The owner of the ship that brought goods to the Black Sea shore owes about 60,000 US dollars to the crew.

The striking seamen are citizens of Ukraine; the owner of the ship is a citizen of Bulgaria; the goods are from Egypt: onions, which they wanted initially to leave onboard, but then unloaded.

"We have supplies onboard, foodstuffs and potable water; the crew is resolute to struggle," said Olga Ananyina, an inspector of the International Federation of Transport Workers (IFT) of the port of Novorossisk, and added that the previous crew of this ship was also on strike in demand of their salaries, the "NTKnews" writes.

"After clarification of the details, it became clear that the company-ship owner - the Kenset Assets S. A. (Lithuania) located in Klaipeda, - has run into debt not only to seamen but also to the agency, which supplied the crew with foodstuffs, water and fuel at its own account. Now the ship is detained by the State Port Control, and the seamen, following instructions of the FIT inspector in Novorossisk, refuse to leave the berth and get to roadstead until the debts are paid," said Olga Ananyina.

She said that she contacted the Kenset Assets S. A., and after long negotiations the company sent 12,295 US dollars as repayment of a part of the debts to the account of the Crewing Agency "Betelgeuse" in the city of Kherson. However, no further payments followed.