David Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation, has written to U.S. President Bill Clinton, urging him to suspend sanctions imposed on Japanese ships calling at American ports.
In his letter, Cockroft pointed out that as a result of the sanctions, "Japanese seafarers, who are in no way involved in the dispute between the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission and Japanese authorities, are becoming the victims of the failure to resolve the dispute."
He repeated the ITF's strong opposition to the commission's attempts to use U.S. economic power to force the Japanese government against its will to impose changes on the employment security and collective bargaining arrangement at Japanese ports.