As part of the ITF's Urban Transport Committee , 21-22 February, the participants will attend a reception at City Hall to hear about the Mayor of London's approach of 'constructive engagement' with unions.
Wilma Clement, Barbados Workers Union and ITF Road Transport Section women’s representative, will be at the event: "I am hoping that all the transport workers attending will use the occasion to raise their concerns and to make suggestions for improving our responses to technological and other changes.
"I expect that artificial intelligence, the effects of technological change and climate change will take centre stage in many of the sessions."
The conference will be preceded on 20 February by workshops that bring together young public transport workers and women public transport workers.
Asbjørn Wahl, chair of ITF urban transport committee, said the event comes at an important time: “The public transport sector represents some important advantages for building union strength and alliances. Due to strong urbanization and a key role in fighting climate change, public transport is growing, and will continue to grow considerably in the years to come.
“We must ensure that this happens in a way that serves the interests of workers as well as the users and society at large. That can only happen if we are able to keep, and bring back, public transport under democratic control – through public ownership and operation.”
Noel Coard, head of the ITF Inland Section, commented that the conference is a key event to build the ITF's Our Public Transport priority programme, a joint programme of the ITF Road Transport and Railway Sections, and a major step on the path to the ITF Congress in October in Singapore.
