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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 9 August 2002 > ITF campaigns

The ITF’s Mobilising Solidarity strategy of the past four years has involved developing a greater capacity to campaign, and in a way that involves more unions and more of their members.

To the long-standing campaign against flags of convenience in shipping, have been added campaigns on “Fatigue Kills” among drivers, “Safety First – Not Profit” among railway workers, “Zero Air Rage” among cabin crew, and mobilising against the draft European Directive on ports restructuring, amongst others.

How well has Mobilising Solidarity done in reaching out to more affiliates and their members? How well have the ITF campaigns supported the local needs of those unions as their industries are restructured? Five activists from around the world recount their experiences

Dispatches from the front line

It opened our eyes

Even remote communities dependent on rail communications for their survival are facing privatisation. Brian Stevens is a third generation railwayman in northern Ontario, Canada. He is also President of Local 103 of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and has been at the forefront of a community-wide campaign to stop divestment. He explains how being part of the ITF network of rail affiliates has strengthened their local activities.

In December 2000, the Ontario government announced it was going to privatise our rail operations. They were even talking of replacing some rail services with motor coaches. But in this region, population density is minimal and the winters very harsh. Take Moosonee; with no road access there is no other way in or out but by rail, unless you can afford the air ticket. Such communities rely heavily on rail for freight too – from the mines and lumber mills. The Ontario Northland railroad was created in 1902 to support the economic and social development of the far North. It is one of the last government-owned railways in North America. Now this lifeline was on the chopping block.

So we reached out to the municipalities, local businesses, and others in the communities along the line, as well as the nearly 800 rail workers facing job losses. We had the railway employees put “Ontario Northland Not for Sale” stickers on the dollar notes in their pay packet. As the money, worth Can$1 million a week, circulated around local retailers, vehicle mechanics, dentists, and further through the money chain, people could see that if those rail jobs are gone, that money is gone, that trade is gone. It brought a much larger profile to the campaign.

When you live in a remote region you sometimes think you are isolated from the rest of the world. So, when privatisation happened elsewhere, we just didn’t imagine that any government would do something so nasty here. Thankfully, I was a CAW delegate to the ITF Congress in Geneva in 1994. I learned firsthand that all regions are wrestling with the same issues of workplace restructuring, the same railway companies pressuring governments to privatise, and what that means for rail services, jobs and communities.

Then in 1999 the CAW hosted the ITF Interamerican railways conference in Toronto. A number of Local 103 leadership people attended and that opened their eyes. Our Local got involved with the first ITF Action Day in March 2000. We arranged for free rail travel on that day. Communities all along the line passed resolutions supporting the ITF campaign! But the privatisation issue still had not really surfaced locally, and some of our members couldn’t make the connection to the ITF Day.

By the second Action Day in 2001, we were in the midst of the privatisation debate. Members were shocked: “How can we be privatised just like in the UK?” and they got involved. This year, on 26 March 2002, we circulated postcards and the recent Transport International in the stations and on trains, highlighting the articles on South Africa and UK rail restructuring.

We have armed municipal leaders with evidence coming from ITF affiliates showing that privatisation leads to lower services and safety, increasing costs, and loss of jobs. Government has been unable to disprove what we are saying. It still hasn’t quite shaken off its appetite for privatisation, but we have definitely slowed it down.

I have been able to build relationships across the world, often with people I have never met except through email. There is a lot of information sharing between ITF affiliates, and I can talk directly with the Section staff in London, to bounce ideas about campaign strategy and find others who might help. We all get so embroiled it is good to get another set of eyes to give your plans a reality check.

As remote as we think we are, the world is pretty small and those railway barons will find us. Regardless of how their locomotives are painted, they treat us all about the same.”
For more on the Ontario campaign, see: www.developingthenorth.com

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Issue 9 August 2002

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