What kind of Congress are you expecting Durban 2006 to be?
The biggest and most representative in the ITF’s history. Most people no longer come to an ITF Congress because it’s in a nice place and they can have a relaxing time, but because they know that what is decided here will have a major impact on their union and its members.

How was Durban chosen as the venue?
The last two congresses having been in Asia and North America, and previously most having been in Europe, there was total consensus on our Board that 2006 was Africa’s turn. Having decided that, the long contribution of the ITF to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, together with the strength of our biggest South African affiliate Satawu, and easy air access from every continent, made Durban an easy choice.

“Strong transport unions are central to exerting social control over the global economy, but to do that we can no longer rely on the traditional way of organising. We have to get unions to focus on appealing to new groups of people who are joining the workforce.”

What will be your personal priorities during Congress?
A lot of the time is spent sorting out issues relating to policy, work programmes and elections, and participating as far as possible in the different industrial conferences and the women’s conference. My main objective is always to end Congress with the delegates going home feeling they have gained a great deal from being there – and without any major crisis happening.

What does “organising globally” mean to you?
It means changing the way our unions work to ensure that they adapt to the increasingly global transport industry, in order to increase the organisation rate of workers. Strong transport unions are central to exerting social control over the global economy, but to do that we can no longer rely on the traditional way of organising. We have to get unions to focus on appealing to new groups of people who are joining the workforce, as well as the traditional union members who are usually to be found in large, publicly owned, employers.

Are there any particularly difficult decisions to be made?
Because of the radical new organising ideas that will come out of Durban, we will need to look at bringing in extra resources – human and financial – from ITF unions. Money can be an issue when it comes to Congress. But I am confident our delegates appreciate that the ITF has to continue as a body funded by its affiliates.

What will you most enjoy about Congress?
Meeting the participants who make it to Congress but not to the many other ITF meetings we hold, and who can give me a better idea of how the ITF is viewed by rank and file union members and how we can make it better. We are going to have some wonderful contributions from the African affiliates of the ITF, who will be here in unprecedented numbers and who will demonstrate the strength and commitment of African unions. They (and I) will say a special thank you to Ben “Roxy” Udogwu, who has built ITF Africa from almost nothing to what it is today in his over 40 year-long ITF career.

What are you least looking forward to?
I don’t really know yet. The bad things at Congress are the problems you can’t predict and which require fast action to solve them. We always have technology failures, and problems with hotel rooms and transport. But we have a great team of ITF staff from London, who have been organising Congresses over a long period of time. They can usually solve most crises without me knowing about them!

What is your greatest hope for Durban 2006
I hope that we will succeed in convincing transport unions that they need to change and to bring in all kinds of transport workers, young people, women, informal workers and those in strategic places and employers within the world economy. More than anything else, we need to convince the workers themselves that in order to keep decent work they have to organise globally.