Yesterday I had the honor to address the Mexican Senate, you can read the full transcript of my speech below.
First of all I want to tell you that in Europe, after facing the pandemic and in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, all countries are confronted with a massive inflation and a huge loss of purchasing power for the workers.
After speaking with Mexican policy makers and trade unions I have the impression that the challenges we are faced with are quite similar.
One of the problems we are faced with in Europe is social dumping in the transport sector.
As you might know at this moment 27 member states together form the European Union, and from a workers’ perspective we can say that this union is mainly an economical project where free circulation of goods and services are the main objective.
This doesn’t go parallel with the creation of a social level playing field. The different members states have different labour legislation, different social legislation, different cba’s and different minimum wages.
An obvious problem we deal with in the trucking industry is that eastern European drivers are operating on a quite permanent basis in Western Europe. The big problem is that their wages are totally different, read much lower, than the wages that are to be paid in Western Europe. It is a kind of modern slavery.
This creates an enormous pressure on the wages and provokes a race to the bottom when we speak about social issues.
But also in other sectors like inland navigation and civil aviation the same race to the bottom is organized on a political level and by the employers. It is a huge challenge for trade unionism in Europe.
The employers pretend that they have to fall back on foreign labour because there is a shortage of staff in many transport activities. A shortage of truckers, of logistic staff, of handling staff, … In reality in my opinion there is no shortage of staff, there is a lack of decent jobs with salaries that guarantee a decent living.
I also understand that as well as in Europe, transport workers in Mexico are confronted with automation, digitalization and the social consequences of this.
Automation in many cases causes a loss of jobs.
Digitalisation and the platform industry that goes in parallel with it are also expanding in our transport sector and are provoking huge tension on our labour market.
We see big multinationals like Amazon rolling out all over Europe.
We seed food delivery companies like Deliveroo and Uber Eats expanding.
And we see how Uber reshuffled the complete taxi business all over Europe.
The problem with these companies is that they do not consider themselves as employers but as service providers. They consider the people who work for these platforms as independent workers that have no formal labour relationship with the company.
Which means that they have less social protection, less access to health care, les pension rights and so on.
And of course it is a big challenge for the trade unions in Western Europe. I consider it as our job and our duty to fight this kind of precarious employment and to put pressure on the political world and on these companies to reclassify their workers and to consider them as employees.
But in the meanwhile unions have to organize these workers, even if they have a special status.
I think it is our duty and our vocation to organize the workers in the platform industry and to fight together with these workers for better working conditions and better wages for them.
This is why my union, BTB, signed an agreement with Uber in which we are recognized as a representative of the workers who work for the platform. This agreement makes It possible for us to solve problems which the workers are faced with by social dialogue.
I must say that I am very worried about the raise of far right political parties and populism all over the world. We saw it with Trumpism in the US. Luckily Bolsonaro was beaten by Lula in a democratic vote. But also in Europa far right parties are growing and even participating in governments.
And although these populist preachers pretend to defend the workers, they do this on a false narrative of exclusion. And history learned us that the first things that happen when far right grabs the power is the prosecution of trade unionists, the dismantling of union rights and attacks on the workers organisations.
I am really convinced that progressive politicians and trade unions must work together to stop far right ad populism.
All over the world we are confronted with climate change. And only the oblivious deny that the earth is warming up with all the consequences it brings with it. Massive floods, forest fires, extreme heath, earthquakes, drought, … It is clear that the transport sector is part of the problem.
Me travelling to Mexico has quite a big impact on my ecological footprint. But also the trucking and the maritime industry are responsible for a lot of CO² emission.
It is clear something has to be done. The only problem is who will pay the bill for the solutions we have to develop? To me it is clear that it cannot be the workers who will have to pay this bill. Not by loss of jobs, not by diminishing their wages.
It is our duty as trade unions to push the employers to sustainable innovations and to work together with progressive political parties to take measures that improve the environment with out being harmful for the workers we represent. And our transport sector is also part of the solution. Cheap and efficient public transport is one of the answers to realise sustainability.
Can I take this example about climate change to emphasize that the solutions will not be national.
The climate challenge is a worldwide problem that only can be tackled by working together.
This is why I engaged my union in the European Transport Workers’ Federation and that is why I engaged the ETF in our global organization, the ITF.
Because trade unions have to work together on a global scale.
So that is why I am very happy to talk here today with Mexican trade unionists and progressive political representatives because I am convinced that if we work together we can realize a lot and we can win. Because there is an alternative to neo-liberalism, to privatisation and to liberalization.
It is the alternative of solidarity amongst the workers and working together beyond national boundaries on an international scale.
Comrades
We, trade unionists, always have our heads in the clouds,wWe dream of a better world for the workers we represent!
But we also have both feet on the ground.
We work day after day to achieve that dream. Step by step.
By negotiating when possible,
But by taking action when it is necessary!
So, comrades, let us be well aware that we are stronger together
Long live union unity!
Long live international unity!
Long live the ITF!
