The ITF road and rail action week 2013 begins on Monday. Combining the annual road action weeks and rail action days in one event running from 7 to 13 October, it is designed to give workers and their unions the chance to take local issues to national governments and an international audience. Its campaign theme is Transport workers fighting back – Organising globally!
Mac Urata, ITF inland transport sections secretary, explained: “This action week builds on the successes of the road action week, which has been held since 1997, and the Safety first! rail action days which began in 2005. It unites rail and road workers and their unions in one huge event and as an extra feature it deliberately coincides with three important daylong events: the ITUC’s (International Trade Union Confederation) World day for decent work, and the ETF’s (European Transport Workers’ Federation) action day against the European Commission’s fourth railway package; and the Dubai Ports World (DPW) day of action.”
The action week will be celebrated in an A to Z of countries ranging from Angola to Zanzibar, along the way taking in: Barbados, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, India, Ivory Coast, Germany, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Liberia, Mali, Mauritius, Morocco, Nepal, Russia, Senegal, Sweden, Thailand, Togo and the USA. Activities will range from driver training to awareness raising, and holding demonstrations to lobbying for health and safety measures for armoured car drivers. To find out more about the action week and its history and to see daily updates on how it is progressing or download materials about it, visit www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/actionweek2013.cfm.
For more about the ETF action day see www.itfglobal.org/etf/etf-3777.cfm. Details of the World day for decent work can be found at http://2013.wddw.org. And to learn about the DPW action day see www.itfglobal.org/campaigns/campaigns-3821.cfm.
