Seafarers and shipping companies won’t find it easy to agree on an industry-wide wage agreement next year amid soaring inflation, according to a senior labour leader.

“It’s going to take some work,” Steve Cotton, general secretary of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), told TradeWinds on 1 July on the sidelines of the Turkish Maritime Summit in Istanbul.

“We’re anticipating a period of some industrial unrest as we work with employers to work out how we can make sure that the salaries of workers aren’t devalued.