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28 April 2010 - Lorry convoy is a success for professional drivers

On Wednesday 28 April 2010, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament rejected the proposal of the European Commission by 30 against 19 votes. More than hundred trade union activists from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and the Netherlands gathered in front of the European Commission’s building. The General Secretaries of the ETF, ITF and the ETUC together with several members of the European Parliament gave speeches in order to urge the members of the Committee to vote in favour of the rejection. With such an overwhelming result the ETF considers the 18 month of campaigning, with the lorry convoy as the coping-stone, as a victory for the professional drivers and all European citizens. “Thanks to the active participation of the ETF affiliates during the last year and a half, we succeeded in our objectives and gained a positive outcome for the workers,” says Cristina Tilling, the ETF Political Secretary of Road Transport. Eduardo Chagas, the ETF General Secretary, added: “The positive outcome of this campaign shows the importance of fighting together on European level for work quality, health and safety and decent jobs for European workers. The ETF will now continue its activities to ensure today’s vote will be confirmed in the European Parliament plenary vote which is envisaged for early June 2010.” For more pictures, click here.

27 April 2010 - Lorry convoy visits Schengen

On Tuesday morning 27 April 2010, the ETF lorry convoy arrived at Schengen, Luxembourg. A large group of trade unionists and politicians welcomed the convoy together with the press. The convoy is now heading for Paris, France. Tomorrow the 15 lorries and busses will arrive at the European district in Brussels and drive around the buildings of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council. An ETF delegation will attend the vote in the European Parliament on the Working Time Directive.

26 April 2010 - Lorry convoy visits Düsseldorf

On Monday 26 April 2010 the ETF lorry convoy continued its journey through Europe and arrived at 16h00 at Düsseldorf, Germany. The ETF affiliate ver.di welcomed the convoy at a parking area just outside of Düsseldorf. The ETF delegation organised a press conference and journalists from German television, radio and newspapers were present to cover the story. The ver.di representative Uwe Speckenwirth, Landesfachbereichsleiter of North Rhine-Westphalia and the ETF Political Secretary of Road Transport, Cristina Tilling gave a speech at the press conference. The ETF delegation handed out the campaign leaflets to lorry drivers on the parking area and informed them about the ETF campaign. The convoy will now spend the night in Düsseldorf and continue its drive on Tuesday morning to Schengen, Luxembourg.

26 April 2010 - Lorry convoy visits The Hague and meets Dutch MPs

On 26 April 2010 at 9:00 am, the ETF lorry convoy arrived at The Hague, the Netherlands, and visited the national Parliament. Members of Parliament Paul Ulenbeld (SP) and Pierre Heijnen (PvdA) welcomed the ETF delegation. Henk Van der Kolk, President of FNV Bondgenoten, and Milorad Sugic, President of the ETF road transport social dialogue committee, handed over the ETF position paper regarding the Working Time Directive and discussed the current issues at stake. Both MPs promised to inform other Members of Parliament and to question the Dutch Minister of Transport on the Working Time Directive for professional drivers. The lorry convoy now continues its journey to Düsseldorf, Germany.

23 April 2010 - UNITE lorry departs from London to join the ETF lorry convoy!

This morning the first lorry part of the ETF convoy has departed from London. UNITE and ITF launched the action. The lorry will join other 14 lorries and coaches on Sunday in the Netherlands. The convoy will cross the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and will arrive in Brussels on Wednesday, 28 April. The ITF General Secretary said: "This is a trade union campaign against an 84-hour working week for truck and coach drivers, that has mobilised ITF and ETF affiliates around the world. Trade unions around the world often look at Europe as a continent where workers and working conditions are respected. But it seems that Europe’s reputation in this respect is in danger of going down the drain".

15 April 2010 - Lorry Convoy crosses 6 countries, visits 5 cities and reaches Brussels on 28 April

The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) will organise a lorry convoy to protest against the introduction, via a European law, of an 86-hour working week for some categories of professional drivers. With a starting point in the United Kingdom, 15 lorries and busses will cross the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France to finally enter the European quarter of Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday 28 April 2010. National actions will be organised in major cities of the crossed countries. Trade union activists from throughout Europe will join the convoy in Brussels. To read the full text, click here.

16 March 2010 - Swiss trade unions protest against the newly proposed working time rules

The Swiss trade unions Unia, SEV and Kommunikation organise a demonstration in front of the Swiss Parliament in Bern. Professional drivers, trade union activists and members of the Swiss Parliament join the demonstration and protested against the exclusion of self-employed drivers from the EU Working Time Directive. To read the full text, click here.

24 February - 3 March 2010 - Bulgarian transport trade union FTTUB runs a week-long campaign in protest to the 86-hour working week for lorry drivers
The Federation of Transport Trade Unions in Bulgaria (FTTUB-CITUB) ran a massive public campaign against long working hours for professional drivers. In focus, the EU plans to abolish working time limits for professional drivers. Under the slogan "Reject the 84-86 hour work week for professional drivers", the campaign targeted the public at large, parents and children, pedestrians, citizens of main Bulgarian urban centres. Its aim is to strengthen the public understanding of the nature of drivers’ profession and the dangers - to the road safety - arising from their accumulated fatigue. To see pictures of this campaign, click here.

2 February 2010 - ETF Road Transport Section decides to continue the campaign on working time for drivers

At its section meeting, Paris, 26 - 27 January 2010, the ETF Road Transport Section – once again – denounced the European Commission proposal (October 2008) for the revision of the Working Time Directive for mobile personnel in road transport (Directive 2002/15/EC). To read the full text, click here.

9 December 2009 - Revision of working time directive for drivers

The ETF makes a key contribution at the hearing organised by the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. On 1st December, ETF and Ver.di representatives spoke before the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, within a hearing on the revision of the working time directive for road transport. To read the full text, click here.

9 October 2009 - ETF Action on Working Time for Professional Drivers - A SUCCESS!

The Brussels action organised by the ETF on 7th of October was a success! The action aimed to protest against the European Commission plans to abolish working time limits for self-employed professional drivers. To read the full text, click here.

6 May 2009 - ETF and its affiliates welcome vote of the Parliament that rejects 84-86 hour working week for professional drivers!
Yesterday, 5 May, in Strasbourg, the European Parliament voted to reject the European Commission proposal on a revised working time directive for road transport. The vote eliminates the risk for an 86 hour working week for professional drivers.

9 April 2009 - ETF and the ETUC write to the European Commission asking the Commission to withdraw its proposal for a revised working time directive
“The industry makes full use of existing differences between EU Member States, in terms of labour cost, fiscal policy and legal provisions. Differences in the application of the driving and rest time regulation (Regulation (EC) No 561/2006), by size of vehicle, has led to the impossibility of controlling driving time and rest periods for vehicles of less than 3.5t. It has also encouraged practices such as remuneration (of drivers) by delivery or by kilometre. With the working time directive excluding self-employed drivers, the European Union is about to aggravate the situation!” pointed out, in there joint letter, Eduardo Chagas and John Monks. Read the letter by clicking here.

6 April 2009 - RMT sends a clear message to the British Members of the European Parliament to vote for safer road transport by supporting the inclusion of the self-employed drivers in the working time directive
“Universal coverage will allow universal monitoring and universal enforcement… Bringing self-employed drivers into the scope of the Directive ensures that unscrupulous employers do not pressure drivers to take up self-employed status…” said Bob Crow, General Secretary of RMT. Read the full RMT statement here.

9-31 March 2009 - Ver.di mobilises all union regional offices and works councils from road and logistics companies in a protest against the 86 hour working week
German MEPs are approached at national and land levels and asked to reject the proposal in the plenary session of the European Parliament, on 5 May. Ver.di – TRANSNET address a joint statement to the German government pointing out the risks associated with the revision of working time directive and calling for the German government to abstain from any agreement that the Transport Council may reach on this dossier. Click here and here for more details on Ver.di campaign.

31 March 2009 - BTB approaches the Belgian State Secretary for Transport, to express dismay over the Council’s intention to exclude self-employed drivers from the scope of the sectoral working time directive
BTB questions the State Secretary when he states that drivers who work on their own account (self-employed) will never be exploited by an employer… and that they should continue to work 86 hours a week! BTB emphasizes its belief, that limiting working time will effectively prevent social dumping, as well as an increase in numbers of  false self-employed drivers, and in road accidents. Click here to read the full BTB press release.

31 March 2009 - The Transport Council adopts a general approach on the working time directive for road transport
Its main features are the exclusion of self-employed drivers from the working time rules and the obligation for the European Commission to run - yet another - impact assessment study, four years after the enforcement of the revised directive. Eduardo Chagas, ETF General Secretary commented: “The least of the Member States’ concern is with the future of the sector. The interest here is: less enforcement cost, cheaper transport, more opportunities for the unemployed to get into the labour market at any price and on no matter what conditions. The whole approach of the Council proves that they are ready to go for the easy way out, the short term solution. As for the road safety, the health and safety of drivers, the fair competition in the sector – well, they postpone the “thinking” till the next European Commission impact assessment study, in about four years time.”

30 March 2009 - DP DHL European Works Council Forum
The European Works Council Forum of Deutsche Post DHL, under the leadership of its Chairman, Elmar Kallfelz, used the meeting of the Select Committee as an occasion to make the Road Transport Working Time Directive a topic of discussion and to forward the statement of the ETF to the central management.  With its Global Road Safety Initiative, the Group has been demonstrating its commitment to safety in road traffic since 2006. Elmar Kallfelz said: “The Members of the European Works Council Forum ask central management to assert their influence at the European level against the 84 hour week for drivers.”

30 March 2009 - The European Economic and Social Committee declares itself in favour of the application of working time rules to all categories of drivers
As part of the institutional process to be followed by the proposed revision of Directive 2002/15/EC, the EESC adopted, on 25 March, its opinion vis-à-vis the European Commission proposal to exclude certain categories of drivers from the sectoral working time rules. The EESC is the second institutional body – after the European Parliament – to take into account the concerns voiced by drivers and their trade union representatives, that the exclusion of the self-employed drivers from the scope of the minimum working time rules will have a critical impact on road safety, on health and safety at work, and on competition in the sector. Click here for the full ETF statement.

27 March 2009 - ACV Transcom union activists send a strong message to Belgian MEPs to reject the European Commission proposal excluding self-employed drivers from the scope of the working time directive for road transport
“Our sector is marked by discrimination – between countries, between categories of drivers and vehicles. It is no surprise that pay and working conditions are worse than ever before.  No working time limits for self-employed drivers? This is a gift for companies: they will force full time drivers out of the sector and re-employ them as “self-employed” instead. We have seen this before!” said an activist, voicing the union’s concern.

25 March 2009 - European Transport Workers' Federation
The ETF sends letters and posters to all Member States representations to Brussels, asking the governments of the 27 Member States to be aware of the serious risks when applying the sectoral working time directive to only some categories of drivers. Click here to see the poster.

2 March 2009 - ETF Road Transport Unions Demonstration

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24 February 2009 – European Transport Workers' Federation
The ETF sends an open letter to the Members of Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council to explain why the exclusion of the self-employed drivers from the sectoral working time directive would jeopardise the driver’s profession, the sector and the public at large.

23 February 2009 – Belgium
The Belgian colleagues from BTB-UBOT and ACV-CSC Transcom have distributed throughout Belgium up to 10 000 campaign flyers.

20 February 2009 - Spain
The Spanish colleagues from the CC.OO trade unions send a letter to the Spanish Members of the European Parliament urging them to take into account the trade unions’ and the ETF position concerning the non-discriminatory application of working time limits to all categories of drivers.

9 February 2009 - European Trade Union Confederation
The ETUC and its member organisations contact the Members of Parliament who sit on two key Committees of the Parliament that deal specifically with this dossier (the EMPL Committee and the TRAN Committee). They insist on the inclusion of the self-employed drivers in the sectoral working time directive.

4 February 2009 - Czech Republic
The preservation of working time limits for all categories of drivers has been demanded of the Czech Presidency by our Czech colleagues from the Transport Trade Union of Czech Republic (OSD). The risks associated with lifting working time limits for certain categories of drivers have been brought to the attention of the Czech Presidency.