Mercredi 11 octobre 2023 j’ai eu l’honneur de faire un discours au Congrès du FEETS-FO à Toulouse. FEETS-FO est la Fédération de l’Equipement, de l’Environnement, des Transports et des Services Force Ouvrière en France. Vous pouvez lire ci-dessous l’intégralité de mon discours.

Chers camarades,

En tant que Président de l’ETF je vous apporte les salutations les plus fraternelles de 5 millions d’affiliés. Appartenant à 200 organisations syndicales en 38 pays de l’Europe. 

Je dois aussi excuser Livia Spera, notre secrétaire générale qui aurait voulu être parmi nous. Mais elle est appelée à d’autres devoirs. Nous avons dû repartir le travail, elle et moi, et je suis heureux de pouvoir représenter notre ETF.

C’est un honneur pour moi, d’être parmi vous.

 Feets-FO est particulièrement actif au niveau international et je voudrais donc saisir le moment de vous remercier pour votre engagement au niveau international à l’ETF et à l’ITF.

Plus particulièrement dans la personne de Laurent LeFloch

Mais aussi par votre engagement dans les sections de l’ETF, et à l’ITF.

Mais quand je vois la dynamique de vos débats,

Les activités que vous déployez dans de nombreux secteurs.

Quand je vois la conviction syndicale, je veux vous inviter à vous engager encore d’avantage.

A l’ETF nous avons besoin de syndicats qui veulent marquer la différence. De syndicats qui veulent faire bouger des choses

Ausons le dire, de syndicats qui rêvent de changer le monde, et qui travaillent jours après jour pour le faire. 

Camarades, le discours de votre secrétaire général hier était tellement inspirant, motivant, … Et tellement juste que c’est difficile d’y ajouter beaucoup.

Mais, permettez-moi de faire le topo de quelques défis avec lesquels nous sommes confrontés au niveau Européen, et donc des défis que l’ETF et l’ITF ont à affronter.

Évidemment il y a le défi climatique qui est particulièrement problématique au niveau global, et donc aussi pour les travailleurs du secteur du transport,

Je ne pense pas que je dois encore vous convaincre des conséquences du réchauffement de la terre, et des conséquences que cela à partout dans le monde. 

Bien qu’il y a certains politiciens qui relativisent l’impact du réchauffement climatique, nous vivons tous cet impact. 

Les incendies partout dans le monde, de la Grèce au Canada, via l’Espagne, …

La montée du niveau de la mer, qui risque de faire disparaître des îles entières dans la mer, et de mettre en péril nos côtes … La qualité de l’air qui met en danger la santé de la population,

Les problèmes sont réels et des solutions doivent être développées.

Et si nous parlons des secteurs du transport, nous savons que nous faisons partie du problème. 

L’industrie dans laquelle nous travaillons est particulièrement polluante. 

Le transport de marchandises par route par exemple, mais aussi le secteur de  l’aviation, sont des plus polluants. 

Nous savons qu’une partie de notre industrie sera concernée si nous voulons apporter des solutions durables. 

Toute la question est de savoir qui payera le prix de la transition.  Les travailleurs ou les pollueurs? Ceux qui travaillent dans nos secteurs, ou ceux qui ont fait du profit pendant des années?

Nous devons interpeller les employeurs d’investir dans des technologies durables.

Nous devons nous battre pour avoir des garanties que nos affiliés gardent leur emploi. Nous devons mettre pression sur les politiques pour que des mesures justes et sociales soient prises.

Et n’est il pas juste de demander que les plus riches payent d’avantage de taxes pour financer la transition?

Et il faut savoir que nous avons aussi une partie de la solution dans nos secteurs.Il faudra des investissements dans le transport en commun. Puisqu’un transport public efficace et abordable pour les utilisateurs est une des réponses à la problématique climatique.

Mais cela veut dire aussi que nous devons nous battre contre la privatisation et la libéralisation du rail et du transport public dans nos villes.

Plaider pour la durabilité, et en même temps privatiser et libéraliser est une contradiction que nous ne pouvons pas accepter.

Parlons aussi de la digitalisation et de l’automatisation. La révolution digitale que nous vivons de nos jours va de plus en plus vite. La numérisation et l’Intelligence artificielle ont un impact énorme sur nos secteurs du transport.

 La « gig économie » a boulversé nos secteurs. De grandes entreprises comme Amazon dans le secteur de la logistique,

Uber dans le secteur des taxis, Deliveroo, dans la livraison de repas, … imposent un business model inacceptable.

Ils ne considèrent leurs collaborateurs non comme des employés, mais comme des indépendants,imposent une flexibilité à outrance et fuient toute responsabilité en cas d’accident de travail, ou autre.

Nous pensons que nous devons combattre le modèle que ces sociétés essayent de nous imposer, mais nous sommes aussi convaincus que nous ne devons pas laisser les gens qui travaillent pour ces sociétés sans protection.

A nous d’organiser ceux qui sont exploités par ces nouveaux joueurs dans le monde du transport.

A nous d’organiser le combat, aussi chez Uber, Bolt, Deliveroo et Amazon.

Et je suis heureux de constater que FO participe au réseau de Just Eat/Takeaway crée par l’ETF

Camarades,

Je suis extrêmement préoccupé par la montée du populisme et de l’ampleur que des parties de l’extrème droite prennent. 

Je sais que je ne dois pas vous convaincre, vous les Français, de ce danger, avec Marine le Pen du Rassemblement National qui, à chaque élection, risque de prendre plus de pouvoir. 

Je me rappelle le défi moral que beaucoup d’entre vous ont eu, quand ils devaient voter soit pour Le Pen, soit pour Macron lors du deuxième tour des dernières éléctions présidentielles. 

Et dans des pays avec une tradition sociale-démocrate, comme la Finlande, la Suède … l’extrême droite participe aujourd’hui au pouvoir. 

Tout comme en Italie ou l’extrême droite a pris le leadership du gouvernement avec Giorgia Meloni comme premier ministre.

Donc ma question est bien simple, camarades:

Est-ce que nous allons laisser passer?

Ou est-ce que nous allons nous battre?

Il faut se mobiliser, camarades.

Il faut se battre contre cette dérive à droite.

Et ne nous trompons pas, camarades,

La première chose que les nazi on fait,

Quand ils avaient le pouvoir, le 2 mai 1933, Hitler a dissous les syndicats allemands, confisqué leurs biens, et il a commencé à emprisonner les leaders syndicaux.

L’extrême droite essaie de séduire la classe ouvrière avec un discours de haine, de division et d’exclusion.

Il ne faut pas se tromper!

Ne pas se faire piéger par leur discours d’exclusion.

Leur discours de division.

Leur discours de hain.

Leur discours raciste!

Souvenons nous de Jean Jaurès, camarades. Il nous disait:

Il n’y a qu’une race,

C’est l’humanité! C’est pour cette même raison que l’ETF a proposé de faire du 8 mai une journée de commémoration et de congé collectif au niveau européen.

Le 8 mai est la fin de la deuxième guerre mondiale, et donc la victoire de la démocratie sur le nazisme.

Avec les élections européennes devant la porte, l’ETF a décidé de mener une campagne active. Nous voulons propager nos priorités vis-à-vis du monde politique,

Il faut convaincre les partis politiques et leurs candidats de soutenir notre vision sur le monde du transport. Parce que si le parlement européen et le conseil  capotent vers plus de droite, voir extrême droite, cela ne promet pas beaucoup de bien pour les travailleurs que nous représentons. 

C’est aussi pour cela que l’ETF appelle à une participation massive à la manifestation organisée par la Confédération Européenne des syndicats le 13 décémbre à Bruxelles.

Une manifestation contre l’austérité qui se dessine déjà dans la politique de la commission. Une manifestation contre l’obsession à la privatisation et la libéralisation de la Commission,

Une manifestation pour une Europe plus sociale qui garantie un soccle de protection sociale pour tous les travailleurs en Europe!

J’espère voir les drapeaux de Force Ouvrière bien présents dans les rues de Bruxelles le 13 décembre prochain!

Camarades, les grands pas en avant dans le mouvement ouvrier ont toujours été réalisés par la lutte syndicale

Nous n’avons jamais rien obtenu en le demandant gentiment. Nous avons dû nous battre 

Et c’est exactement ce que nous devons continuer à faire.

Ensemble!

En France!

En Europe!

Et au niveau mondial!

Parce que… ensemble nous sommes plus forts!

Today I spoke as ETF – European Transport Workers’ Federation president at the ETUC congress “Together for a fair deal for workers”.

Read my full speech below.

I am happy to be here in Berlin, in Germany, and having the opportunity  to take the floor as ETF president.

This congress is organized here at 588 km from a parking area where history was written. In Gräfenhausen 70 drivers from Georgia and Uzbekistan went on strike against their polish employers who exploited them and who didn’t even pay their salaries.

It is historical, because for the first time in the transport sector third country workers in Europe striked against exploitation. And they had the full support of the European Transport Workers’ Federation, and our member organisation Ver-di.

And you know what: they did won the strike and received their salaries worth all together over 300.000€. This is a major victory for unionism and a good illustration that there is an alternative for the race to the bottom in our economies.

If only we fight back, ff only we organize, if only we open the door of our unions also to workers from abroad working in our countries.

We have to celebrate our victories!

I invite you all to give a big for a round of applause for these courageous drivers!

During this strike the polish employers mobilized a private militia to break the strike! They failed. That is an assault on our democratic right to strike. Techniques that are popular in far right organisations.

Because let’s admit it: far right is growing! And if they do not wear boots marching in the streets, they do wear fancy suits an shirts. They are participating in governments in different countries in Europe.

Wake up, brothers and sisters! Fascism is back, seducing also the workers we represent with a false narrative.

So let’s mobilize against far right. I wear the red triangle on my vest, a symbol of resistance against fascism, racism, exclusion, … That is also why ETF gives full support for campaigning to make the 8th of May, the day of victory of democracy over nazism in 1945, a public holiday all over Europe.

Because we have to remember and we have to defend democracy. Against far right.

No passaran!

Today I had the honor to speech at the congress of the Nordic Transport Workers’ Federation.

You can read my full speech below.

Brothers and Sisters,

Dear friends,

Comrades,

Today I am glad to be here with you, the Scandinavian unions that are members of ETF .

It is an honour for me to speak at your congress and to tell you that I am a proud ETF President.

Proud of what the ETF has accomplished since the Barcelona and Budapest congresses in 2017 and 2022.

Proud of the transition ETF has gone through so far.

Because, let’s admit it.  Before the Barcelona congress ETF had become too much of a lobby group, too much of a bureaucracy, and too selforiented.

It was time to make a radical change, turning ETF over in a dynamic and strong counterforce in Europe.

And yes, I am proud of what a strong and efficient organisation the ETF has become.

And all of this was realized thanks to the strong support from you, from the Scandinavian unions.

The strong support from NTF.

NTF is one of the strong holders within ETF.

There is a very strong commitment of the NTF unions, in all sectors in which you are active, and I hope this will set an example for other unions all over Europe.

We can only encourage this because ETF needs more active and engaging unions like yours!

So I would like to take this opportunity to really put the spot light on the role of the Nordic unions within the ETF.

I do not exaggerate when I underline that we would not have a mobility package like we have now, without the strong commitment of the Nordics.

I do not exaggerate when I underline how crucial your role has been up to now in the discussions about platform work.

And don’t we forget how important your role was in the Fair Transport Campaign.

The NTF affiliates were deeply engaged in this ETF campaign.

Unions in Sweden, Finland and Denmark managed to collect more than 50.000 signatures during the campaign, and were – together with my own union – the goal getters in that campaign.

We, in the rest of Europe know, that when it comes to sustainability, we have a lot to learn from the Nordic countries.

You always seem to be one step ahead of the rest of Europe when it comes to ecology and sustainability.

And of course within ETF we appreciate the Nordic pressure for decent living conditions for the transport workers, for example in the Ikea global transport chain or in the struggle with Nemlig.com.

Stephen Cotton was clear about the challenges we face on a global level.

Still, I would like to emphasize the solid link ETF has today with ITF and the importance of a strong European voice within ITF.

There was a time that the communication and coordination amongst ITF and ETF were not what they should have been.

Together with Livia Spera, our GS, and with the full support of Steve, we were able to change this fundamentally.

Today, we are working together, we coordinate, we talk with each other, and we are stronger that way. 

Because for you, the affiliates, this is what makes sense. 

But we cannot deny that within ITF, other parts of the world are growing stronger. 

Which is good news. There is an increase of membership of unions in South East Asia, in Africa and in the Arab world, … And there is a relative decline in membership in Europe.

But more worrying is that some of the European affiliates are not enough engaged in ITF.

It is my ambition to ensure that the voice of the European unionscontinues to sound loud enough to be heard in our global organisation.

We must speak with one European voice and give our full support to the strategy the General Secretary of ITF has worked out up to congress and for the next years to come.

That’s why I think Europe should give Steve full support for his re-election.

Brothers and sisters, I want to share with you a very big concern. It is the growth of far right and populism all over Europe.

Far right is back! Much more dangerous than ever before.  If they don’t wear boots marching in the streets, they do wear fancy 3 piece suits, nice shirts and ties. And they became more and more arrogant and influential. 

Extreme right is gaining more and more power in Europe. In different countries in Europe.

Also here, in Finland and in Sweden for example.

Far right political parties try to clean up their image and succeed in becoming part of the  government. Far right pretends to defend the workers’ rights, but we know better.

History learns us that once fascists have the power, they attack workers’ rights and they attack their unions.

They have to be stopped. We have to keep informing the workers of the dangers of extreme right, especially with the European elections coming up next year.

We have to do everything we can to avoid people from casting a vote for Far right out of dismay.

We have to raise awareness that there are other alternatives, our alternatives!

But therefore we have to be active, take initiatives. And I am sure we can count on your unions to turn these initiatives into a success.

That’s why, today, I’m wearing this red triangle on my vest. The symbol of the fight against fascism, racism and division.

That’s also why ETF is pleading for the 8th of May, the day that Nazi-Germany was defeated in 1945, to be a European holiday.

To end,  I would especially like to thank Jan Villadsen, current president of NTF, and also vice-president of ETF, for the good job he has done for NTF and ETF.

I hope that the collaboration with the next president of NTF will be as fruitful as this one has been.

And last but certainly not least, I want to congratulate Anu and her team for all the good work she has done as General Secretary of NTF.

And remember Brothers and sisters:

Divided we fall,

Together we are strong!

The first of May is our day of celebration. It’s the day of celebration of the labour movement – and no one else’s.

But the first of May is also our day of combat. Because when it comes to social justice, there is still a great deal of work to be done. Nothing definitive has yet been gained from all our struggles. That’s why we need to celebrate on May Day, because that’s when we can showcase our pride in what we have achieved so far. But we must also remain vigilant, as well as active – because the (far) right is still on the rise and will not hesitate to turn back the social clock if it can.

Read my full statement below.

 

Proud of what we have achieved… knowing that there is still a lot to do

In many places around the world, the labour movement has been able to achieve some form of prosperity for working people. Much of the welfare state as we know it today is the result of our struggle: strong social security, solid public services, decent education for all, universal suffrage – and so on. All of these have been achieved by the labour movement. But in too many parts of the world, people can still barely dream of prosperity. Instead, hunger, thirst, overpopulation, war, etc. are what they have to contend with.

Clearly, wealth and welfare are poorly distributed. Over the past two years, the world’s richest 1% have amassed almost twice as much money as the other 99%. While Elon Musk has paid an actual tax rate of 3% for years, rice sellers in Uganda have handed over 40% of their hard-earned income. They earn barely € 70 a month, whereas Musk is worth 165 billion euro.  Which just shows that the gulf between the rich and the poor only continues to grow.

As a labour movement, we can only have one answer to counter that disparity: international solidarity and action that somehow rectifies the skewed proportions of global wealth.

Our hard-won achievements are under attack

We often think that everything we have managed to achieve is acquired forever. However, nothing is forever! 

Employers do everything they can to undermine what we have built. Across the world, bosses are on the offensive. They claim that wages are too high, social safety nets are too expensive to implement, the retirement age is too low, working hours too short and productivity too low – all endangering their “competitive position”.

All over the world and in every sector, we are faced with social dumping and a race-to-the-bottom in terms of wages and working conditions.

At the same time, there are major challenges facing the labour movement.

Digitalisation and automation are two of them. The digitalisation of the transport economy can rightly be called disruptive. Entire sectors have been stood on their head like never before by the “gig economy”.  Uber, Deliveroo, Amazon and others have destabilised labour relations in areas such as the taxi industry and parcel delivery services, etc. It is up to us to reverse these developments in order to guarantee the rights of the employees who work in these sectors. Digitalisation must be social!

And then, of course, there is global warming. It is now clear that we are all facing the consequences of climate change, wherever we are in the world: drought, water shortages, forest fires, floods and other natural disasters… Action is needed. And while the transport sector may be part of the problem, is it also part of the solution.  Appropriate measures need to be put in place – but without passing the bill on to the working people, as is usually the case.  Sustainable innovation and fair transition should be our guiding principles. Cheap and efficient public transport is part of the solution.

They shall not pass!

The far right is gaining ground all over the world. Orban in Hungary, Erdogan in Turkey and Meloni in Italy are all examples of how the far right has become entrenched in the power structure of various European countries. 

The same forces of the right are also attacking the labour movement. ITUC (The International Trade Union Confederation) recently published its “global rights index”. This index shines a light on the practices of governments and companies alike. 148 countries were monitored and assessed with regard to their respect for trade union rights: 78% of these countries violated the right to strike, 97% infringed the right to collective bargaining and, in 13 countries, union members were actually murdered!

The right to strike, the right to organise trade union action, freedom of the press, etc. are all human rights! It is our responsibility to defend these human rights.  And if “they” attack one of us, they attack us all.

The storming of Congress in the US, led by Trump who lost the election. Bolsonaro, who brought Brazil to the brink of collapse. These are two examples of how democracy can be successfully secured again for the people through the appropriate reaction of progressive forces. Both of these populists were sent packing by the democratic will of the people. 

It is up to us to find motivation in these events and draw strength from them so that we can defend democracy. 

Make 1st May a day of combat!

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!