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Border dialogues

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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 26 January 2007 > Border dialogues

The first ever international meeting for governments, employers and trade unions on the problems faced by cross-border drivers created positive dialogue and new momentum to address the problems of one of the most vulnerable groups of workers in the world, as Mac Urata reports

Border-crossings in many parts of the world fall prey to poor infrastructure, bureaucracy and inefficient procedures as well as corruption by border staff and local police. All of this can contribute to gridlock situations, to be endured by international drivers, who are often left open to harassment and intimidation by police or border officials, while without access to rest or support.

Even before setting off on a journey drivers will often have had to struggle with long and difficult visa application procedures. An international driver from Eastern Europe may be forced to spend up to 30 days collecting documentation for every cross-border trip he or she undertakes, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Erasmo Flores of the Sindicato Nacional de Motoristas de Equipo Pesado de Honduras (Sinamequiph) told the first ever tripartite ILO conference on the cross-border problems faced by these drivers, held in Geneva in October:

“Just before this conference, I met Rafael Arauz from Panama, Gilberto Carrera from Guatemala and Santos Amado Rubio from El Salvador. They were among a dozen international drivers who visited our union. They were held up at the border on their way to Honduras and wanted to lodge their cases with us. Back at home, many fear to join a union because of management retaliation. I hope the outcomes of this meeting will reach out to ordinary workers like them”.

"In a muddy side road behind the trees around 40 international drivers were hanging around, without recourse to any toilets, shelter, or kiosk"

Victor Mokhnachev of the Motor Transport & Road Workers’ Union said he knows of cases where Russian drivers get caught in 40 kilometres of congestion entering Latvia. “Such delays can lead them to aggression, intemperance and briberies,” he said.

“And if you fall asleep in the queue or vacate your vehicle for a toilet break, you are back to square one as the drivers behind will pass you,” added Per-David Wennberg from the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union. “They are fatigued from the stressful delay and then they speed to catch-up. That is a perfect cocktail for a road accident.”

Edivaldo da Silva of the Confederacao Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Transportes Terrestres (CNTTT) in Brazil was appointed as the union’s international coordinator during an ITF/SASK-sponsored cross-border workshop held last year in his country. On a visit to the border with Argentina, workshop participants saw at one end of the premises a large modern duty-free shopping centre. At the other end, in a muddy side road behind the trees around 40 international drivers were hanging around, without recourse to any toilets, shelter or kiosk. A three-day wait here is the norm. Having witnessed the scene, Edivaldo was assigned by his union to work on the case.

During the long hours and days waiting at borders without access to rest facilities, many international drivers may choose to seek a night’s accommodation with a commercial sex worker, despite the risks entailed of contracting a sexually transmitted infection. An ILO report for our meeting referred to a 2001 study that showed 56 per cent of long-distance drivers in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, South Africa were HIV-positive.

Abner Ramakgolo of Satawu pointed out that his union challenged road transport employers more than 10 years ago and successfully launched the current project “Trucking against AIDS” in South Africa. Together with increased awareness among managers and employees on the issues, the project brought a dozen mobile health clinics to key routes, along with a condom distribution system and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) provision, which target sex workers and the local population as well as professional drivers.

Outcomes of the meeting

The whole tripartite meeting felt strongly that the rights, welfare and dignity of international drivers – who make a vital contribution to the socio-economic development of their countries and regions – deserve to be promoted substantially.

“The industry needs a clean image and the highest standards of professionalism,” commented the employers’ worldwide association, the International Road Transport Union (IRU). “The employers recognise and support workers’ rights to freedom of association and bargain collectively.”

The meeting concluded that “appropriate facilities for sanitation, food and beverage, supplies, rest, communication, lodging and legal entertainment, vehicle repair and other emergency services as well as parking facilities” are in need at numerous borders. It further states that “access to multiple-entry visas with longer periods of validity” is desirable where relevant, but also warns of the need to eliminate illegal employment and trafficking. The concluding paper stresses that the “establishment of procedures that would safeguard the human and labour rights of international drivers” is essential for the social partners in dealing with cross-border issues.

Following long and constructive debates, the employers’ and workers’ groups agreed to work through the ILO to develop a pilot project on cross-border monitoring. They also agreed for the first time to work together in tackling HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue.

Peter Baranowski from Verdi, Germany who acted as the workers’ group spokesperson commented: “We were well-prepared for this meeting as the issues it raised are the real-life problems of our union members, which we have been dealing with. For example in West Africa during the annual ITF campaign week, our unions organise a joint cross-border event with a workshop on HIV/AIDS, recruitment interviews with international drivers, a dialogue with government officials and finish the day off with a truck convoy that will disperse illegal police inspections along the route”.

He continued: “The ILO secretariat planned the meeting well in advance with the workers’ and employers’ groups. It gave good faith to the two parties and created an atmosphere of seriousness and sincerity in our tripartite discussions to which the participants committed themselves to produce affirmative and constructive outcomes”.

Less than a month after the conference, the ILO convened a meeting to follow-up on the conclusions and turn them into action points, to be implemented in 2007.

The International Labour Organization tripartite conference, “Labour and Social Issues Arising from Problems of Cross-Border Mobility of International Drivers in the Road Transport Sector”, was held in Geneva from 23 to 26 October 2006.

Mac Urata is ITF inland transport secretary.

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Issue 26 January 2007

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