Between those in favor and against the inclusion of construction sites non-EU on the list of ship recycling facilities authorized by the European Union, which in recent days have seen support and oppose this proposal put forward by the Commission European Union, the main international shipowners' associations and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Transport & Environment (T&E) associations ( of 31 August and 2 September 2026), representatives of trade unions in the sector shipbuilding and ship dismantling companies that adhere to the international trade union federation IndustriALL Global Union are aligned with the latter.

Meeting yesterday in Helsinki, delegates from the trade unions that also deal with the construction and ship demolition have admitted that several shipyards ship dismantling, including some Indian ships thanks also to under pressure from the Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling and General union Workers' Association (ASSRGWA), have made significant strides to ensure the sustainability and safety of ship dismantling activities. But at the same time they have highlighted that these advances hide the disastrous conditions of workers downstream in the supply chain, mostly women, who collect, sort and recycle the resulting raw materials from the dismantling of ships. In India, for example, women represent less than one percent of the workers involved in the ship dismantling, but they make up the vast majority of the downstream of this supply chain. The Indian trade union Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), which organizes these women and is affiliated with IndustriALL, has urged the inclusion of workers downstream of the entire ship recycling process in the standards for the sector as, currently, the Recycling of Ships Act of the 2019, the Indian law regulating the demolition sector naval system, establishes standards and mechanisms to be applied only in the context of the dismantling phases of the ships that take place within the shipyards, while it does not contain no provision for demolition activities, and Recycling of ships undertaken outside the shipyards ship demolition.

During yesterday's meeting, Rashim Bedi of SEWA presented a report on working conditions downstream of the supply chain, helping to build a consensus on the inclusion of downstream operations in broader discussions on safety and ship dismantling industry standards.

In addition, the particular seriousness of the of the security problem in Bangladesh, where on 14 August nine Workers died from exposure to toxic gases on a construction site of Chattogram shipbuilding, despite the shipyard held certifications in accordance with the Hong Kong Convention, the International Maritime Organization's treaty aimed at ensure that ship recycling is safe and respectful which has been ratified by Bangladesh.