Global delivery unions talk tactics in the face of intimidation

Union representatives working in the global delivery sector in Central America met in November to discuss strategies for protecting employees in an ever more hostile, anti-union environment.

The ITF FES (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation) organising training seminar in Panama City brought together 20 delegates from Venezuela, Colombia and Panama, where global delivery workers are increasingly vulnerable to deterioration in their working conditions coupled with anti-union intimidation by management. The seminar was part of the ITF global delivery campaign, which focuses on strengthening unions in companies like DHL, UPS, TNT and FEDEX.  It also marked the start of collaboration between ITF and UNI global union affiliates in the region, although the two global union federations have worked together on a global level for some time.
 
As well as typical problems like long, undefined working hours, and the need to deliver as many packages as possible in the shortest period of time, delegates discussed the very real fears of many workers that raising workplace concerns or joining a union can risk dismissal. Recent ITF research in Panama revealed that what at first glance looks like a high number of new employment contracts in the sector is explained by staff turnover, as so many workers are fired at the end of their probationary periods.

In this kind of climate, global delivery workers` unions in the region are acutely conscious of the need to tread carefully among non-union employees. ITF Americas regional education coordinator Edgar Diaz said: “Workers who are currently under the protection of a trade union and collective bargaining agreement in the sector feel it is their duty to support and organise those outside of such protection into a union. But delegates at the seminar recognised that trust needs to be built among workers - and union-building has to start in a clandestine way so as not to threaten livelihoods.”

Find out more about the ITF’s work with global delivery workers at http://www.itfglobal.org/global-delivery/index.cfm