Should trade union organising follow the lead of global trade and transport employment – and break down the borders? Eddie Dickson considers the options

While capital is trading free of boundaries, unions are still organising themselves on a national basis, communicating and collaborating with their counterparts in other countries only when it suits. Most have not yet agreed methods of organising to meet the current borderless challenge, but the process is beginning.

Two unions that have formalised an inter-union cross-border agreement, for example, are the General Union of Road Transport and Mechanic Workers in Jordan and the Syrian Professional Trade Union of Transport Workers Syndicates. In South America many road transport unions have united with their rail counterparts to confront the political issues of borderless transport in the Mercosur free trade area.

In much of Europe too, the border is now only a signpost, though the ITF’s European arm, the ETF, has maintained an ongoing campaign in conjunction with its affiliates to secure protective laws and regulation including limits on driving hours throughout the European Union (EU).

Anecdotal evidence indicates that the majority of drivers coming into Europe from other countries are not unionised. So who is going to organise and educate them.
It seems that labour has to develop a response that protects the interests of both its internal (home) members and those of the external (away) members.

The major flaw with national-only (home) recruitment is that there is no organised and funded support structure for workers needing union help when away from home. There are also few opportunities for either the home union or the away union recruiting non-union workers when they are away from home.

To add to the difficulties there is now less legislative support for the automatic inclusion of workers within a company’s collective agreement – if in fact one exists. The cross-border ownership of transport creates further obstacles to collective agreement negotiation and enforcement. We are looking at an ever-increasing number of non-union workers in the industry, including those many long-distance drivers who find employment as owner/drivers.

Working away from home

Irrespective of status, the fundamental issues of being away workers are the same. The challenge for the driver is to make an income to support a family, pay the bills, to get to and from the destination safely and to be able to establish an acceptable working routine.

One possible organising option could be the use of “umbrella unionism” whereby workers (or at least activists) are registered on a database operated by or on behalf of a number of unions within the specified region. Members of unions who work trans-border could be registered on the data base and as a result enable them to gain union service when away from home – as could workers away from home who come in contact with unions from other countries.

One advantage of such a system would be the ability of unions to contact such workers and encourage them into on-road union activity and form a basis for education and activity.

Others advocate the world wide union (“International Workers of the World”) concept or regional union concept. All workers in one big (new) union but with many branches or locals encouraging activity at road level. This option has attractions only if the many issues arising for the home unions do not result in an agreed policy and financial format for regional (away) organising. One big union is one big challenge – but then some very big countries have only one national union!

Cross-border initiatives

The Transport Workers’ Union of Australia has financially assisted New Zealand transport unions in a joint road transport worker organising initiative. This is based on the fact that many New Zealand drivers seek employment in Australia, but bring no trade union concepts with them.

Others have advocated a role for national unions in negotiating regional collective agreements with the employers operating regionally. But which of them would take responsibility for recruiting mobile workers, and for the costs associated with breach of law or enforcement of employment cases?

In the 1980s the ITF produced a green card, which unions distributed in Africa. This was intended to entitle the holder to support from foreign unions when away from home. It was not as effective as had been hoped because of limited resources to meet or recover the costs involved and the problem that over time the holder’s own union membership may have lapsed. However the green card concept is still viewed in Africa as an idea worth developing.

Some unions in countries where there are long delays at border crossings such as the Syndicat National des Chauffeurs de Transport Terrestre de Cote d’Ivoire have expressed an interest in attempting border recruitment of away drivers entering their countries. The Transport and General Workers’ Union in the UK offers membership to truckers arriving by sea ferry. The recruitment of such drivers could help them to protect conditions for their own drivers at home, while allowing them to offer services to away drivers while in their jurisdiction. However, if the drivers are not employed in the recruiting country, who will be responsible for their ongoing protection and education once they have left the country?

The non-union challenge

Fundamentally, unorganised away workers are of little assistance in solidarity action, they are not recruiters on the road and often will have no understanding that they are undermining local employment conditions. If a worker from a less developed country finds employment abroad that pays better than at home, why would that worker worry about the other implications of the job, for him/herself or for local colleagues?

This challenge in road transport has a flow-on effect in other transport modes. Unorganised road transport workers, exploited as non-union labour, undermine the ability of rail workers to improve their own employment conditions. Such workers will also fail to understand the linked issues being raised by dockers. There is no solidarity without organisation.

If there is acceptance that globalisation has led or is leading to borderless transport, unions will have to determine an appropriate organising response, and to achieve the active support of workers for it. The EU-sponsored meetings of drivers held in Lithuania, United Kingdom and Denmark during 2005 revealed a core of interested and able trade unionists travelling throughout the EU region.

The border protests held as part of the ITF Road Transport Action Week in October last year clearly indicate that the problems drivers and their support personnel face are regional in nature and common to all. Workers require unions that can negotiate their employment conditions and achieve solutions to their many on-road problems irrespective of which country they are in. If the ideas in this article have no merit, then what solution are unions proposing?

Eddie Dickson is assistant secretary in the inland transport section of the ITF.