Monthly Archives: January 2009

Second ITF Gaza aid plane to fly Tuesday

http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2956

A plane chartered by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) will take off from Jordan next week, carrying humanitarian supplies for the people of Gaza.

The flight, which will leave on Tuesday 20 January, follows an earlier aid flight part-organised and loaded by Jordan’s General Trade Union of Workers in Air Transport and Tourism, and the ITF. It delivered a cargo of medicines and ambulances last week at Al-Areesh Airport, Egypt. The consignment was handed over to the Red Crescent for distribution in Gaza the same day.

This latest flight will follow the same route and will again be on a Royal Jordanian Airlines A310. The airline has actively supported the relief effort. On board will be operating equipment, first aid supplies, burn dressings, medicine and eight tonnes of milk for newborn babies. Donors include Jordanian transport unions (especially the aviation workers’ union), who have supplied half the cargo, and other members of the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions (GFJTU), with more contributions on their way from Tunisian and Lebanese transport unions.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft commented: “There is a crying need for medicine, dressings, water and food. We are doing what we can to address it. There’s an even greater need for an immediate ceasefire, so that this carnage will stop and the medical services and the people of Gaza can begin to pick up the pieces.”

The international trade union movement, including the ITF, the International Trade Union Confederation, the GFJTU and the Palestinian trade union congresses have all backed a call for trade unions to sponsor humanitarian relief aid to Gaza.

To see more photos visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/itf/sets/72157612393774470