Strong union presence is key at UPS

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Contenu de la page: Accueil > Magazine Transport international > Issue 35 - April 2009 > European Works Council

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John Boodle explains how to improve the UPS European Works Council to give workers greater protection.

How did you become involved in the European works council (EWC)?

JB: I became involved in the EWC when my union, the UK-based Transport & General Workers’ Union, was invited to send a representative to the negotiating body that was set up to establish the works council. In November 2000, I was elected to the coordinating committee and, in April 2003 and October 2008, I was elected vice-chair.

What are the main issues in UPS across Europe?

JB: The issues are similar to all other global corporations – restructuring to save costs and all that that entails, such as outsourcing, subcontracting, offshoring and shared service centres.

Background briefing

What is the UPS European Employee Communications Forum?
The UPS European employee communications forum (UPS EECF) is a European works council (EWC). It is comprised of European UPS employees, who are part of the UPS European employee forum, and UPS management. The first agreement for the forum was signed in 1999 following negotiations involving unions and the company. This was in response to a European directive on EWCs that aimed to improve European employees’ rights to information and consultation at work.

How does the UPS European Co-ordinating Committee fit in?
This is made up of an equal number of management and employee forum representatives – there are four at the moment – and it acts as a “communication platform” between the employee forum and UPS in between the annual UPS EECF conference. The co-ordinating committee meets four times a year to set agendas and to deal with follow-up from the main conference.

How will the forum tackle these problems?

JB: We can only raise these issues if we have a well-organised and communicative employee forum. We need to have information from representatives so that we can challenge management. The election of a new coordinating committee and the appointment of an ETF adviser, Cristina Tilling, is a move towards trying to establish a more effective EWC at UPS.

What challenges have you come up against?

JB: I have always regarded the creation of an active and successful EWC as a long-term project for several reasons: there are communication difficulties among ordinary employee reps who do not share a common language and who will meet perhaps only once a year. Their backgrounds in industrial relations are often very different and their ideas and objectives concerning an EWC can also differ as a result. Nor does a regular change of representatives, particularly from some countries, assist the process. The lack of a strong trade union presence and the fact that management has sought to control the agenda from the very start have meant that the UPS EWC has not been as effective an employee representative body as it could be. We intend to try to improve the situation.

How do you feel about the future?

JB: The economic picture since the infamous “credit crunch” demonstrates the need for an effective and resourceful EWC to help protect employees’ jobs and standards of living as global corporations like UPS forever try to find ways to cut costs.

John Boodle is the vice-chair of the UPS European coordinating committee.

Interview by Yasmin Prabhudas.

Partie Accueil:
Issue 35 - April 2009

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