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Our members have been affected quite negatively by border liberalisation – basically since Sweden’s entrance into the European Union, but especially since the EU deregulated cabotage (domestic transport) in 1998. Up to this day the cabotage rules are still open to interpretation, which leads to confusion among market agents. This means that the market and the government don’t really know which rules to follow. Of course this also makes it hard for the government to observe and control the market.

Just to give you one example of this, an organisation representing Swedish transport companies filed a police report declaring that the company Lidl from Germany used a German-based company with German drivers for domestic transport in Sweden between its different stores. The answer from our police authority was that the rules were too complex for them to proceed with criminal charges.

The competition for market share has indeed hardened, which leads companies to cut down on every cost they can. For the workers this means more stress, lack of following the rules for rest and driving time as well as for traffic rules. Of course this has also meant job losses for Swedish drivers, however good statistics for this are very hard to get.

Markus Petterssen, FK, Sweden

 

It is impossible, at the moment, to describe the full consequences that will result from the lifting of the old external borders of the European Union. The accession of the 10 new member states to the EU also marked the start of a transitional period as far as access to the labour market is concerned. It is expected, however, that the large wage differentials between the individual countries will put jobs under pressure, in the railway sector just as everywhere else.

For the railway companies the lifting of the external EU borders is another opportunity to speed up their international transport services. So far, however, their success in doing this has been limited. The lack of interoperability and the fact that lorries from the new member states are no longer banned from operating has meant that the road haulage sector is benefiting more from the opened borders. At the same time, a number of jobs have been cut in railway companies on both sides of the border, mainly in the areas of customs services, technical control services and combined goods transport. A survey among the companies affected has shown that more jobs were actually lost in Hungary than in Austria.

For the Austrian Railway Workers’ Union it is essential to use the transitional period – a maximum of seven years – for changes to the labour markets so that, when they are opened up completely, there will be no harsh impact.

Harald Voitl, GDE, Austria

And on tackling border delays

Cargo continues to get delayed at the border posts, causing cancellations, which have destroyed many employers.

Unions on the other hand have been working to ensure that members are not exposed to long hours of waiting, and they have been applying pressure to government. At Beitbridge in 2004 our members decided to blockade the border, with the result that both South Africa and Zimbabwe committed themselves to finding a solution to alleviate the delays.

Changes in legislation have been brought, largely in an effort to reduce the high levels of fraud and drugs at the border posts and to gain tighter controls of transporters. A single administrative form is to be introduced to cover the entire Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. It is already compulsory on the Trans-Kalahary corridor, from Walvis Bay in Namibia, to Gauteng and at Martins Drift/Groblersbrug to Botswana.

However the form is longer than the previous one. Customs authorities are now planning the introduction of electronic clearing.This will allow transporters to pass through the border much more quickly, because the goods have already been cleared. Though there are these developments, it is unfortunate that they have happened without the full involvement of labour.

Abner Tabudi Ramagkolo, SATAWU, South Africa

How should unions tackle membership decline? This month’s question for readers: Most unions, particularly in industrialised countries, have been facing years of steady membership decline. What kind of strategies should unions be adopting to reverse this trend? Please send your brief comments to parris_kay@itf.org.uk by 31 January 2006. Or post your thoughts on the ITF Bulletin Board