42 C 14/RTSC/KeyDevelopments INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORT WORKERS FEDERATION 42nd Congress Mexico City, 06 August 2010 Road Transport Workers Section Conference KEY DEVELOPMENTS, 2006 2010 A. Workers' rights and mobilisation of solidarity Iran 1. The ITF Road Transport Workers' Section continues to regard promotion of workers' rights and global mobilisation of solidarity as one of its top priorities in its activities. Whilst the President and the Vice President of the ITF affiliated Tehran Bus Workers' Union remain in jail, despite our continued efforts for their release, this ITF initiative, which started as the "Free Osanloo" campaign, has now grown to bring on board other Global Unions and Amnesty International to work together. In terms of mobilisation, an unprecedented four global action days have been organised in solidarity with the Iranian workers. This successful mobilisation is a positive development from the Section's annual action week campaign, which follows the same style in its organisation because the ITF and its affiliates have been mobilising union activists and rank and file members successfully to a global campaign on issues pertinent to the workplace, many ITF unions are used to interacting with the Secretariat at short notice and know how to maximise the visibility of the campaign through reports and photography. The network we have built between the Global Unions on the Iranian campaign has also become a platform for wider cooperation on other trade union rights campaigns, for example in Turkey. Turkey 2. In Turkey, the ITF has been working closely with TÜMTIS since April 2008 on three major disputes involving targeted arrests and mass dismissals. Thanks to the positive response from our affiliates worldwide and a solid unity of workers and their supporters locally, the union has managed to overcome all these disputes. The ITF is informed that it is quite uncommon to win the reinstatement of dismissed workers in Turkey. We should never underestimate the effect of protest letters, although one may often wonder what effect a message on a piece of paper (or increasingly by electronic mail) will have. There are governments and companies who take such action seriously, although they may not respond to each message. At the same time, it is also important to escalate such action strategically. In the Ankara dismissal case, the ITF stepped up its protest action by first sending its own message to the Turkish authorities, then requesting ITF affiliates to send similar protest letters, and finally obtaining support from LabourStart (www.labourstart.org), which promotes online union activism, to launch an online protest. In the Unilever dismissal case, our sister organisations, IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations) and ICEM (International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers Unions) assisted the ITF as the IUF also had their serious conflict with the same management. They
page 2 have also come out of their disputes successfully as the global management has now agreed to meet with the IUF and its affiliates on a regular basis to discuss their industrial relationship. In the Mersin dispute, where a multinational port operator was involved, the ITF Dockers Section offered their full support. In all cases, the ITF made its representation to the sites of the conflict, such as the picket line, to deliver its message of solidarity. These campaigns for Iranian and Turkish unions have attributed to a degree of recognition in some governments and employers, as well as our sister international federations, that the ITF is a solidarity organisation. First Group 3. The ITF has been associating with the Anglo American "Drive Up Standards campaign to combat the anti union activities by the multinational operator, FirstGroup. Through the concerted pressure from the campaigning unions and their supporters, the US Teamsters Union has now recruited more than 20,000 workers at this company since the campaign began in 2006. The campaign has been expanded to include Durham National Express and Baumann Bus workers. 4. The key question in mobilising our global solidarity and winning these disputes is the tools and methods we could use in our campaigns and actions. Protest letters and electronic mails can be a starting point, but we need more than that as our options. 5. The second point to note is the question of timing. How swiftly and accurately can the affiliate involved in the dispute inform the ITF of the conflict that has started? Better still, can they warn us in advance? Such efficiency requires a good degree of trust between the ITF and its affiliates and a general understanding that the Federation upholds promotion of workers' solidarity as its cornerstone and is ready to react immediately. The more time we waste in responding to disputes, the more difficult it gets to organise our counter actions efficiently. The question of timing is also closely linked to the ways in which we escalate our campaign and also in knowing important dates on the calendar that may relate to the actions we organise. For example, for the campaign in solidarity with workers in Iran, an Action Day was organised in March just before the Iranian New Year where some amnesty has been given in the past. 6. Another question that we need to consider is the longer term objective in the industrial relationship with these companies who are in conflict with our affiliates. Often they are international operators and more than one affiliate of the ITF organises these workers. For example, the ITF and its unions who represent employees in National Express have met several times to discuss ways in which a global dialogue could be established. Although the recent financial crisis in this company has not allowed us to further progress this objective, the ITF Executive Board meeting has adopted guidelines for ITF Global Framework Agreements (Annex 1) and we would need to consider how such a global relationship can be achieved in our Section. The ITF and UNI (Union Network International) in their joint platform of the Global Delivery Network are meeting with the top management of DHL. B. Campaigns and Action Day/Week 7. The ITF and its workers and trade unions in the road transport industry have been campaigning over the years to promote better working conditions in the bus, trucking and taxi industries and to encourage these workers to join a trade union where they can seek improvements in their conditions and protection of employment. Fatigue Kills! 8. The ITF International Road Transport Campaign started as a Fatigue Kills! campaign in 1997 when deregulation was widespread in all parts of the world and workers and their trade unions were feeling
page 3 the massive pressure put on their existing wages and conditions. Through the annual Action Days that the ITF organised, the unions and their members began to realise that they were not alone in their struggle against these unprecedented changes in their conditions and that international campaigning could be a starting point in their fight backs. Indeed, some unions have used the Action Day and its international influence to win new legislation or better collective agreements. In some countries, the trade union campaign has raised substantially the public awareness of the issues of drivers fatigue and the status and working conditions of truck drivers so that the public and media no longer wrongly believe that truck drivers are responsible for a large number of serious road accidents. Organising Globally Building Union Power 9. However, given the low union density, in particular in freight road transport in many parts of the world, the ITF and its affiliates have also come to realise that a global event like this Action Day should be utilised to recruit new members to the trade unions as unions are particularly visible during the campaign. That is why the campaign (now extended to a week since 2005) upheld the slogan "Organising Globally Building Union Power" which also corresponded with the key ITF Congress theme in 2006. Good progress has been reported from countries such as Norway, Chile, India, Nepal and Mongolia. Strong Unions Sustainable Transport 10. As we approach the next ITF Congress in Mexico City with its slogan, "Strong Unions Sustainable Transport", the ITF is once again reviewing the progress of the Action Week campaign in order to propose its next step. We would like to highlight road safety as reference has been made recently by some unions about the start of the United Nation's "Decade of Action for Road Safety". The ITF has formally been invited by the WHO to participate in the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration (http://www.who.int/roadsafety/en/index.html), which is coordinated by the WHO. The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration has taken the lead to prepare and implement an action plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 2020) that was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 March 2010 (http://www.who.int/roadsafety/news/2010/unrsc_decade_of_action /en/index.html). The International Labour Organization is also keen to be in partnership with the ITF on this question. They have already issued a working paper on drivers fatigue and working time in 2005, which the road transport employers group also signed up to. We wish to promote this industry in a sustainable way and for that reason, should aim to bring on board the support of as many stakeholders as possible. 11. Nevertheless, this Action Week campaign will remain to be a trade union campaign led by the ITF and its affiliates to service the rank and file members. That is why we wish to uphold the importance of better working conditions through trade union representation and the need to continue our work on organising. It should be noted that such efforts will not be confined to the bus and trucking industries, but should also be extended to the taxi workers and we should also look into the question of crossborder drivers and their international representation. Furthermore, issues related to precarious work, casual employment or bogus self employment will also be tackled in the campaign. C. Issues on freight transport and passenger transport 12. This Section represents all road transport workers in the trucking, bus and taxi industries. Generally speaking, however, there is a tendency in the discussions of the Section to focus more on freight transport issues. This point has been raised several times in our meetings and requires more than just an attention. In reviewing this issue, the meeting of the Section Steering Committee held in 2009 agreed to include topics such as violence at work; health and safety; precarious and unprotected workers; promotion of public transport; and multinational operators in future discussions.
page 4 D. Logistics/Supply chain Non mobile workers 13. More than ten years ago, the Section, after increasing debate at its meetings on this area, agreed that the coverage of our activities must not be confined to the mobile workers. For this reason, a "nonmobile workers' conference" was held in April 2001, together with the ITF Sections and Departments representing dockers, aviation workers and women. It resolved that the overall ITF activities should put more attention on the growing new industry, logistics. The Vancouver Congress the following year adopted a resolution which in effect kicked off our work in this field. Integrators/Global Delivery 14. The Section has been particularly involved in revamping the UPS World Council, created in 1997, into the ITF Integrators Network when the Section Conference in 2004 agreed to set up a network covering all four major players in the industry, namely UPS, DHL, TNT and FedEx. After convening several meetings of the Integators Network (now renamed as Global Delivery Network), together with the Civil Aviation Section and UNI, the newly created coordination office on Organising Globally projects leads this area of work in consultation with the two ITF Sections. This is part of the process implemented from the Secretariat Review and some structural changes that are taking place within the Secretariat. On this point, the Steering Committee meeting in 2009 noted the major changes that are taking place in the freight transport industries and agreed the need for the ITF to respond to these changes with some flexibility in cross sectional work. It also agreed that the good work of the Section must continue and that there was no need to create a new Section within the ITF (2009/RT/1/Conclusions). This point is reiterated by the ITF General Secretary in a circular to all affiliates where he states that, The key strength of the ITF has always been, and remains, within its industrial sections. 15. Nevertheless, logistics/supply chain is a much wider and deeper issue than just our work on these integrator companies. Multinational ownership and specific cargos being transferred around the world have introduced new challenges for union organisation. Logistic suppliers are multinational, multimodal, and cargo focused. The Section has already determined that the car carrier industry should be an organising focus but the economic recession has delayed progress. The Section has also supported the development of the ETF Logistics Working Group and works closely with the Dockers Section on the Maersk campaign. It is therefore an issue which involves effectively all the Sections of the ITF (with the exception of the Tourism Section). How can we coordinate our activities in this area of work? How should groups like the Global Delivery Network get involved? Secondly, in revisiting the initiative of the Section to promote its work on "non mobile" workers, how should the ITF and in particular the Road Transport Workers' Section develop its programme on warehouse and sort centre workers? E. Relationship with the ITF Urban Transport Committee 16. The Road Transport and Railway Workers' Sections of the ITF have set up a permanent body called the Urban Transport Committee, which brings together the unions who represent rail, tramway, light rail, metro, as well as bus and taxi workers. The previous Congress in 2006 agreed that the four key themes of the work of the Committee over the next four years would focus on health and safety; transport policy; multinational companies; and organising the unorganised. In principle, the two Sections endorse the activities of the Committee, although there has been no major conflict of interest between the parties concerned for many years.
page 5 Quality Public Services (QPS) 17. The ITF is currently working closely with other Global Unions on promotion of "Quality Public Services (QPS)" with a special conference set on 12 14 October 2010. We have often discussed issues such as privatisation and deregulation of public services in our own sector, in isolation from the other services that are equally under attack. Its main purpose, therefore, is to build a stronger unity within the trade union movement and with the wider social movement to promote, improve and extend access to public services. In particular, the ITF has emphasised the importance of follow up action plans from the conference. The Inland Transport Section Secretary has been given a lead role on behalf of the ITF to work with the other Global Unions. Given the fact that the bulk of the public transport services are provided by the workers represented by the Urban Transport Committee, how can we use our platform to promote this new area of work? How can we ensure that other modes of transport (sea, river and air) are included in our agenda? The last ITF Urban Transport Committee meeting in January 2010 fully endorsed this new initiative and agreed to allocate part of its next meeting during the Mexico Congress in August 2010 to discuss this matter, together with senior guests from members of other Global Unions. F. Relationship with other organisations ILO 18. The Section works closely with the International Labour Organization (ILO) on two aspects. One relates to the campaigns on Iran or other countries where an intervention of this office can influence the case. For example, the ITF together with the ITUC (and ICFTU until November 2006) submitted our joint complaint to the ILO Freedom of Association Committee on Iran with a favourable recommendation to our claims. It is, on one hand, worthy to note that the process of investigation by this office in the ILO can take some time and that a submission of a complaint in many cases will not obtain an instant response from the ILO. However, a favourable conclusion from the ILO can be used in our public relations in wider circles such as the media, politicians, policy makers and the public. 19. The Section has also been working continuously with the Transport Sector of the ILO after the successful tripartite conference in 2006 to discuss issues related to cross border traffic and its social consequences to the workers. Working together with our social partner, the IRU (International Road Transport Union), the first ever sector specific toolkit on HIV/AIDS was produced less than 18 months after the conclusion of the conference. 20. The Section is in touch with the ILO Transport Sector on a regular basis. As mentioned above, the ITF is involved in the United Nation's "Decade of Action for Road Safety" campaign, together with the ILO. Container Cargo Safety 21. The ITF also lobbied the ILO successfully to obtain their agreement to hold a Global Dialogue Meeting on container cargo safety in the spring of 2011. This will be timely as a major development on safety legislation is underway in Japan. The Australian colleagues have also reported on the "Chain of Responsibility Act at Section meetings. A small working group is set up between the Inland Transport, Dockers and Seafarers Sections to prepare the ITF's representation to this ILO meeting. Employers organisations 22. The working relationship with the IRU is predominantly through the ILO. The ETF has its social dialogue with the IRU's Brussels Office on EU matters. Some approaches have been made to the UITP, but a working relationship is yet to be established.
page 6 Global Unions 23. A major development in the Section's work since the last ITF Congress is our cooperation with other members of the Global Unions. As described above, an active collaboration was created through the Justice for Iranian Workers campaign and this cooperation continues. This foundation is also expanding to other issues such as the promotion of workers' rights in Turkey. The working relationship with other Global Unions will continue with the QPS conference and its follow up after the ITF Mexico Congress. Social Movement 24. The ITF is actively involved in the World Social Forum and the European Social Forum. Based on the participation of the Section Secretary to these meetings since the last Congress, a special meeting was sponsored by Fagforbundet in 2008 to identify areas of cooperation between the trade union movement and NGOs in the social movement. The Railway Workers Section Steering Committee meeting in June 2009 agreed that the two Sections should work closely to promote this relationship. Again, follow up work from the QPS conference appears to be one area where such collaboration can be further pursued. G. Organising the unorganised workers Mobilising Solidarity 25. The ambitious and inspiring "Mobilising Solidarity" theme document for the ITF Delhi Congress in 1998 pushed the organisation to "flatten its pyramid" and through campaigns such as the Action Days in road transport and railways, brought the Federation much closer to the activists and rank and file members than ever before. It also unfolded rich and wide ranging activities in education with a dedicated department and staff. Women's activities also accelerated following the Delhi Congress. At the same time, the document only contained three paragraphs, at the very end of the text, on "organising the unorganised". ITF Congress theme 26. Nevertheless, the Road Transport Workers Section has taken up the issue of organising the unorganised since then and effectively all of its meetings have discussed this topic. An unprecedented international drivers' organising project was experimented in Central America with the American Center for International Solidarity (ACILS) in 2000 2001, for example. The ITF and Unite (T&G Section) in Great Britain are currently involved in a project to organise informal sector taxi drivers in Zambia. The ITF/ETF have been approached by an Italian union to consider organising Turkish drivers in the port of Trieste. The two organisations are also studying ways and means to organise international drivers. National reports by affiliates on successful organising campaigns have been shared in Section meetings. What appears to be an impossible task in some countries is possible in other countries, the delegates have learnt. Many ITF unions have been exposed to strategic organising work through initiatives such as the Drive Up Standards campaign between the US/UK affiliates. The works that the Section initiated after the 1998 Congress developed into an overall ITF policy in Durban as the ITF Congress adopted "Organising Globally Fighting for our Rights" as its theme document. Building strong unions 27. This will be carried forward as the coming Mexico Congress will debate "Strong Unions Sustainable Transport" as its theme. Organising the unorganised workers to build strong unions will be one of the three key pillars of the Congress (the other two are workers' rights and sustainable transport). The recent creation of the coordination office on Organising Globally projects will undoubtedly make important contributions to the work of the Section, in particular to focus on strategic campaigns on specific targets, as agreed between the Secretariat and the affiliates concerned. The key points for
page 7 discussion in the Section are: how do we carry out our tasks to encourage more affiliates to be engaged in organising work when we see the membership in the vast majority of traditional trade unions (irrespective of the sectors) in decline? What will be the particular roles of the ITF in assisting our affiliates with their recruitment campaigns? How will the well established foundation in the ITF's work on education or campaigning contribute? How will we link this question with issues on women and youth, as well as precarious work? Education 28. Since the ITF Durban Congress, the Section has continued to work closely with the ITF Education Department, the ITF Regional Offices and the ITF HIV/AIDS Coordinator to develop and implement education activities for its unions. These activities have included national and regional industrial seminars as part of donor sponsored programmes, specific development work on industrial issues, regional organising programmes, union development programmes, campaign activities, and Secretariat participation in union activist courses on organising and globalisation. For example, the FES sponsored programme for unions in the MERCOSUR region and inclusion of workshop templates for use by unions as part of the ITF booklet on violence at work. In addition to sector specific activities, the Section is also an active participant in general ITF education work, including the ITF Summer Schools programme. 29. In the coming months, industrial education seminars are planned in Africa, Latin America and Asia/Pacific, including an ITF/FES Mercosur Seminar and an ITF/SASK West Africa Road Transport Seminar. In West Africa, the Section is working with the ITF Coordinator for Francophone Africa, who is leading the ITF programme of activity on Maersk/Bolloré in the region, to follow up the workshop held in 2009 to launch an ITF West Africa Network on these companies. In East Africa, ITF/FNV seminars are planned for long distance truckers. This is an education programme with a focus on HIV/AIDS, which includes an organising aspect. Organising is also the focus for a programme of seminars on DHL, funded by LO TCO and led by ITF/UNI, planned to take place in Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Malawi and South Africa. The Section is leading the activity in South Africa. Workshops on HIV/AIDS at the forthcoming Congress will publicise information on union work on HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, the Section and the ITF HIV/AIDS Coordinator are working together to develop national activity to promote the HIV toolkits that the Section has developed together with the ILO and employers organisation. In terms of general ITF education activities, an organising manual is being developed for affiliates, as well as a transport toolkit, which will include information on the World Bank and union experiences of restructuring. Women 30. The Section liaises with the ITF Women s Department and the Section Women s Representative in its women s activities, which have included research and information, in particular on health and safety issues and violence at work since the last ITF Congress. Issues and activities for women workers are discussed at all Section meetings and seminars. A small team of women Committee members has been set up to look at issues for women road transport workers and to develop strategies in order to support, develop and build activities for women. 31. The ITF Women s Conference in February 2010 recommitted to mobilising and organising women transport workers to tackle the effects of globalisation and the economic and climate change crises facing women transport workers and to strengthen unions to meet these challenges. The ITF Women s Committee proposals for 2010 2014, outlined in the document, Making a Difference Women transport workers in the 21 st century prioritise fighting the effects of the crises on women transport workers; transport unions implementing equality programmes; and organising of youth, informal workers and strategic women workers in new workplace such as call centres and warehouses to increase union leverage and union power. The Women s Committee will additionally focus on
page 8 developing women trade union leaders to lead both workplace campaigns and build union/community alliances, which in turn will build union capacity to undertake sustainable transport campaigns, HIV, and the lack of accessible public transport. The ITF recommits itself to working with women transport workers to continue to organise for their rights: through strengthening collective bargaining; challenging occupational gender segregation and fighting back against exploitation and discrimination. 32. In the Section, the team will follow up the mapping work being done on women bus drivers and conductors in the industry, their issues and organising levels and strategies. The Sections work on sexual harassment and violence at work will continue to include a strong gender element. The Section will also continue to encourage unions to build women s grass roots participation in Section campaigns. Young workers 33. The ITF s young workers programme was set up after the last ITF Congress to make the work of the ITF more relevant to young people by involving them in its activities. The first ever young workers conference was held in 2008 and an ITF Youth Network has been created since then. 34. Since 2008, the Section has kept the network informed of aspects of its work, in particular Section campaigns such as the Action Week and its programme on violence at work. The Section has also discussed issues and activities for young workers at its meetings and seminars. Unions attending the Road Transport Section Conference in 2009 and the Urban Transport Committee Meeting in 2010 also expressed their full support for the ITF programme on young workers. Delegates reported that young workers can be one of the most marginalised groups in the transport industry and one of the key issues that needs immediate attention is precarious work as the proportion of young people in informal work and short term contracts is extremely high. Participants also shared their experiences of organising young workers. 35. During its meeting in October 2009, the Executive Board endorsed proposals for amendments to the ITF Constitution. These proposals, which include the establishment of a Young Workers Committee and a regular Conference, will now be submitted to the ITF Congress in Mexico. H. Industrial issues, 2006 2010 Precarious Workers 36. Precarious workers who work alongside or in tandem with organised workers can be organised into existing unions even if there is a legal fight. However, more and more transport workers are working without union organisation and are being employed as contractors often outside the legal definition of employee. 37. The Section has supported research to identify the organisational issues and there is also much international literature on the subject, but still the problem grows. The ITF needs to identify which groups of precarious workers we support unions to organise. 38. The Urban Transport Committee at its last meeting in January 2010 accepted the need to identify specific organising projects to support precarious worker organisation. The Section policy should support this process and identify at least three projects to support in the next 4 year period. HIV/AIDS 39. The Section identified HIV/AIDS as an important industrial issue because most workers who were diagnosed with the disease were being dismissed from work. Unions did not have an understanding of the disease, nor did they have an industrial response to the dismissal of members with the disease.
page 9 40. The Section supported the Education Department to focus on the education of union leaders to enable understanding of the disease and to assist them to develop an industrial response, while educating their members about the medical and social realities. 41. Today the ITF coordination on HIV/AIDS is conducted through the ITF HIV/AIDS Coordinator. In the Section we have used our association with the ILO, UN and employer bodies to support a tripartite approach in order to develop a balanced response. This process has resulted in the Sections achieving an industry based tripartite education programme based on the production of HIV/AIDS toolkits in both the Road and Rail Sections. 42. There is still no cure for the disease and the number of persons with the disease is increasing. It is important that in countries with lower levels of HIV the unions challenge social resistance to understanding the disease, to educate their members and win protection through their industrial bargaining. The ITF is developing a relationship with the North Star Foundation to open up considerable educational and industrial organising opportunities for unions particularly in Africa. A number of wellness centres have already been opened to target road transport workers. Violence (including harassment) in the workplace 43. Although there have been many programmes spearheaded by unions demanding proper legislation to criminalise violence against workers and demanding employers to develop and maintain safe workplaces and support for social campaigns to win public acceptance that violence is unacceptable, workers still report high levels of violence at work as liberalisation and privatisation of transport has resulted in increased incidences of violence and stress in the workplace. 44. Over the last four years many affiliates have called for support from the ITF to develop material for education in the workplace. The Urban Transport Committee identified the need for a more focused campaign in public transport and with the endorsement of both Sections, the Secretariat identified that although there was significant literature on violence, much of it was based on a top down structural approach through education rather than supporting workplace activism. 45. On the basis that unions should encourage workplace identification of the problems and give their members support to seek solutions the workers are satisfied with, the Secretariat developed material aimed to meet this challenge. An ITF booklet was successfully tested in India with both rail and road transport unions present. To date the booklet has been produced in Hindi, English, Russian, French and Spanish. A supporting leaflet has been translated into 25 languages. A bi monthly bulletin is distributed to a growing list of unionists who have registered an interest in the issues. 46. The challenge going forward is to liaise with affiliates to determine how best the Secretariat can support the introduction of the programme into the workplace. A short introductory film is to be produced to give impact to educational seminars. Health and Safety 47. Health and safety in the workplace is also under pressure from privatisation and deregulation. The Sections have a history of support for affiliates challenging sub standard health and safety. Many affiliates have been involved in campaigns to protect and improve standards, but in recent years the Section has not had any formal structure to identify and develop responses to the health and safety issues of the day. This situation should not be allowed to continue but affiliates also need to identify specific issues needing action.
page 10 48. We would propose the reconstitution of a lead group of volunteers liaising with a contact list of health and safety activists to provide information and ideas. It is necessary for affiliates to identify their specific needs and to support collective efforts to seek specific solutions to specific transport problems. Regional Economic Groups 49. Liberalisation and the removal of border barriers have resulted in a collapse of national protections for national trade unions. In Europe the foundation of bipartite consultation has not been sufficient to protect previous national standards. The situation is worse in other regions of the world. 50. To confront this situation, the Sections have focused on supporting unions to develop a regional focus to their industrial and political work. Examples are the West Africa focus in the ECOWAS region (Economic Community of West African States) using the SASK sponsorship to strengthen the road transport unions nationally but with a regional focus on common political and industrial issues. Activities in the South America MERCOSUR region brought together both road and rail unions to use their combined strengths to focus on the Labour Ministers as well as supporting greater collaboration between the unions. 51. Governments in other regions are developing legal frameworks to support common custom laws, the free movement of goods and people. Unions need support to counteract this liberalisation and most are struggling. The focus to build union capacity to confront regional issues that affect all unions is vital. There are not yet (except in Europe) regional union centres. The most vulnerable workers in any regionalisation are the transport workers. 52. The work going forward will require the identification of training resources with a greater focus on basic union recruiting and development but will also need skills and resources to engage in a practical way with regional governments. Cross border issues 53. Specific issues at borders still require organising activity. The developing relationships and cooperation in the Baltic Region is the best example of unions organising in a coordinated method to protect the interests of national unions. Long delays for truck drivers at certain borders are still a serious issue. The Secretariat is engaged with the IRU and the ILO to seek solutions, but they are still difficult to achieve. The Palestinian/Israeli programme seeking solutions to cross border issues continues despite the serious political situation. International Drivers 54. In every region of the world international drivers face serious workplace issues including long hours of work, corruption by government servants, poor on road facilities and threats against cargo, truck and person. The nature of the international work makes union organisation and servicing very difficult and most unions are still struggling to identify an appropriate industrial solution. 55. The increase in the ratio of owner operators to waged/salaried drivers is increasing. The workers that did have secure jobs and good contracts are being replaced with workers on lesser wages. A lack of a proper social security system denies them health and retirement protection. The level of unionisation is falling. 56. Until unions determine agreed methods of recruiting and servicing such drivers, their employment conditions will continue to deteriorate. If this happens it will undermine the ability of the ITF to develop strength in the logistics supply chain.
page 11 57. The Secretariat is addressing these challenges through the regional economic development programmes, supporting unionisation in the cross border issues, and using the HIV/AIDS programmes to support recruitment, however, these are stop gap measures until unions agree a multinational union structure to organise and service. Annex 1: EB/Oct 09/10(d) Global Framework Agreements