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Transport Trade Unions taking the lead for a sustainable sector
24 January 2012
Almost 170 transport trade unionists from 30 different countries attended the Transunion Final Conference taking place on 19 and 20 January in the International Trade Union House in Brussels. The conference, organised in the framework of the EU-funded project called “Transunion, transport trade unions preparing change for a fair and sustainable transport sector”, presented the outcome of the three project pillars, namely Transport & Climate Change, Women Workers and Young Workers.
Taking the initiative, taking the lead
The project is run by the ETF in cooperation with the project partners ITF, FTTUB and EVA Akademie. Transunion has the objective to prepare the change of transport trade unions to better address the challenges in dealing with climate change and the need to attract more women workers and young workers to the transport sector and the trade unions. Via this project, the ETF wants to take the initiative and the lead in defining a shared vision and action plan for a more sustainable sector.
Presentation of the experts’ work
On the first conference day, each project pillar’s expert presented the work performed during the past year. The project’s Climate Change expert Jonathan Neale presented his discussion document called “Transport Workers and Climate Change: our jobs, our planet”. Nina Fedenczuk, who is the expert for the Women Workers’ pillar, elaborated on the objectives, target groups and state of play of the Gender Training Package that deals with empowerment, collective bargaining and gender equality. Ingo Kuhlbrodt together with his assistant Alicja Kunzika from SynergyEuropaPartner (SEP) informed the participants about the interim results of the youth survey that aims to draw a picture of the current young transport workers’ situation. Except for the climate change pillar, the experts’ work is still in progress and is envisaged to be finalised by March this year.
Recommendations for European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committees on Transport
For each pillar, the ETF together with its affiliates drafted recommendations for topics to be included on the European Sectoral Social Dialogue (ESSD) Committees’ agendas. Those recommendations were presented and discussed with employers’ representatives and representatives from DG MOVE, DG EMPL and DG CLIMA on the second conference day. You can download the draft recommendations under “related documents” at the bottom of this page.
ETF Young Transport Workers taking the lead in change
A special effort was made by the ETF Young Transport Workers in presenting the work performed in the frame of this project and their future plans and strategies. An introduction video showed the participants an alternative manner to approach young workers in a creative and dynamic way, while other videos produced by ETF Youth Network members and posted on the ETF Transunion’s YouTube channel explained why young workers are hesitant to choose for a career in the transport sector and why they should join the trade union. This alternative style of presenting content by using new media rather than PowerPoint presentations was highly appreciated by the participants and demonstrated how trade unions can make minor changes to pass in a more attractive way the message to young workers.
Next steps for each pillar
As stated by the ETF General Secretary Eduardo Chagas at the opening of the conference, the Transunion Final Conference is not the end but only the beginning. First step is to finalise all the project products, namely the ETF position paper on Transport & Climate Change, the Gender Training Package and the final findings of the youth survey together with a collection of good practices how to attract more young workers to the trade unions.
Secondly, the ETF Secretariat will discuss more profoundly with the employers’ organisations of each ETF Sector to what extent the proposed topics for the ESSD Committee meetings can be included on the agenda. Thirdly, the continuation of the work performed in each pillar will be integrated in the ETF work plan. The ETF position paper on climate change will form a lead for the ETF Secretariat and each ETF affiliate for future negotiations related to the topic in the frame of the European social dialogue. The Gender Training Package will be distributed widely among all affiliates and stakeholders to improve the representation and working conditions of women in the transport sector. The ETF Young Transport Workers will introduce shortly a new project for EU funding, continue to work on strategies to express the young transport workers’ voice in a better way and formalise the ETF Youth Committee by next ETF Congress in 2013.
Transunion is a 15 months lasting EU-funded project with the objective to prepare the change of transport trade unions to better address the challenges in dealing with climate change and the need to attract more women workers and young workers to the transport sector and the trade unions. You can download the Transunion leaflet on the ETF website and follow the project online via Facebook and Twitter.
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