Eddie Dickson outlines the progress being made by drivers’ unions to secure basic rights and a regional collective agreement in West Africa.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), supported by the World Bank and other lending institutions, is seeking to set up a unified regional economic zone with particular emphasis on transport, which is mainly by road.

The zone is designed to enhance economic development in the 15 member countries of West Africa. However, to date Ecowas has shown no interest in engaging with the region’s often under-resourced transport unions.

Key common grievances Road transport workers are underpaid and subject to an unfair system of payment by share of the takings. Personal dangers faced from attacks, driving hazards and accidents. Owners are anti-union. Harassment and intimidation due to corruption of officials on the roads. Drivers are penalised for owners’ offences of bad vehicle maintenance and forced overloading. Most drivers are not insured. Trucks and cars are replaceable but human lives and limbs are not.

High levels of unemployment, low levels of income and the massive growth of the informal economy add challenge upon challenge to the possibilities of developing viable and representative unions. But the unions collectively understand that there is no alternative to regional development, underpinned by better national union organising.

Driving issues Wisdom Amevor, senior driver/shop steward, member of the General Transport, Petroleum & Chemical Workers’ Union of TUC, Ghana: After finishing school, I became a mechanic and then afterwards, a driver. I gained the title of a senior driver because I have been driving for such a long time and also because I am a good driver. I check on other drivers to make sure they don’t break the rules or misbehave – I am an example to the younger drivers. I report to the union about border delays. The hardest part of my job is driving long hours, which can cause accidents. If the union wasn’t there we would be facing even more problems. The union and the passengers make it possible to exist and make money. Moussa Sissoko – driver/shop steward, member of La Coordination Nationale des Syndicats et Associations des Chauffeurs et Conducteurs du Mali: The problem we have is that we respect the highway code but the local Ghanaians don’t. When a problem or an accident happens, as we are foreign we often get the blame, and also there is the issue of language. Customs can also sometimes get drivers in trouble. Generally if we have a problem with the police or have parked in the wrong place, we get taken to prison. There are lots of reasons to join a union – to defend the rights of drivers, to call them in case of accidents or police harassment, or when we fall sick. Every week we have a meeting with the drivers to hear what are the issues and how the problems can be resolved. We hear a lot about the problems of lack of sanitary facilities. Drivers are happy if they can get assistance when they have a problem, because each time the driver has a problem they are forced to pay something to the police. We used to get a three months permit to enter Ghana, now we only get one month. Drivers interviewed in Ghana by Christine Ascott at Accra-Aflao bus station and at a truckstop at Tema.

To strengthen road transport union organising capacity, a regional representative committee of trade unionists, covering urban buses and taxis, long distance buses and long distance trucks, was elected in October 2006. The committee is engaged in a series of capacity-building seminars sponsored by SASK, the Finnish trade union solidarity centre. It aims to draw on these and the global organising strategy of the ITF, and to reach a stage where it can represent transport workers at any level, including at Ecowas.

Building on success

Despite scant resources, the unions have slowly helped each other to strengthen their positions. They have succeeded in engaging government authorities to reduce corruption within the civil services. They have created new opportunities to recruit members, and have been active in advocating grass-roots activism.

Drivers, for example, are encouraged when they have support from other drivers to refuse to pay bribes to officials and, if necessary, use their vehicles as a blockade. According to the unions, these activities at the Burkina Faso borders by Mali, Niger and Burkina drivers resulted recently in a meeting with six Burkina Faso government ministers.

The ministers then instructed the authorities to remove all barriers within the country, except at the borders and some custom checkpoints.
In Côte d’Ivoire, unions and police have agreed an arrangement whereby taxi and minibus drivers can obtain a special ticket to use as a protection from harassment by officials.

Vice chair of the regional representative committee Francis Ilboudo of URCB Burkina Faso was one of several ITF-affiliated transport union leaders in the region invited to a meeting of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMA) in July. The meeting unveiled the results of a survey of corruption and other “abnormal” practices on the inter-state trunk road system (see pages 30-31), as part of a bid to increase the awareness of public authorities, operators and civil society about what is going on.

Ecowas and WAEMA are engaged in a joint programme to improve West Africa’s trucking efficiency, and understand that this will demand better governance of the system. The meeting adopted several recommendations aimed at continued monitoring and challenging of the problems caused by unnecessary and at times illicit barriers to drivers.

In June 2007, following a SASK-sponsored meeting in Accra, Ghana, the unions held national discussions resulting in an agreement to a set of common demands for all union activity in West Africa. Unions represented at the meeting agreed they would develop these demands steadily to the point where they could form a regional collective employment contract.

These unions are now actively advocating their demands for proper wages and employment conditions; rights for all workers whether permanently employed or otherwise to access medical care, social security and pensions.

Campaign targets

Towards a collective agreement West African unions are developing the following demands into a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) which they wish to be applicable to all Ecowas countries, signed by owner and driver, and enforced by the authorities: Fair labour laws, to include informal workers Right to join a democratic, progressive union where workers are freely involved in union activities A basic minimum wage plus additional share of takings Right to be free from harassment by authorities Right to paid leave Overtime to be paid for any work over eight hours per day Travel allowance to cover overnight accommodation and other costs Retirement benefits Minimum three months paid maternity leave for women drivers Owners to show respect for skills and rights of drivers Recognised, paid rest times Employer liability for traffic penalties which are not directly the drivers’ fault. Insurance in case of accidents Right to medical and social care, including access to free clinics Social payments, for example where a driver has HIV and becomes too ill to work Access to hygienic facilities in all truck and car stops – clean water, toilets and eating facilities Informal workers should be covered by the CBA.

Employers who deduct levies but do not pass them to the proper authority will, unions say, be targeted. They report that drivers are enraged at the attitude of employers who worry about the truck first and then determine if the driver is able to carry on. Trucks are insured and can get spare parts but workers, who are not insured, cannot.

The failure of governments and Ecowas to respect the role of unions is seen as a challenge. Union leaders know that once they gain strength and develop solidarity with one another, their ability to challenge the free movement of goods will result in government attention.

Employment conditions at present are so bad in transport that there are almost no women employed on the road. However women are employed in the offices and depots, and they should be included as part of any organising drive.
The regional initiatives will include further emphasis on the encouragement of women in the industry to join the unions and facilitation to enable them to take an active part in union activities.

Although millions of dollars are being spent on HIV/AIDS awareness programmes, there is very little involvement of workers and their unions. Many delegates to the SASK meeting expressed the generally held worker view that NGOs are not interested in engaging with workers and neither are the governments, but that millions of dollars seem to disappear without real progress being made.

Without employment protection and access to appropriate medication, many were sceptical that support structures would improve. However, there was acknowledgement that unions would just have to fight harder for their members and families.

Eddie Dickson is assistant secretary of the ITF inland transport sections.