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!

This week I had the honor of opening the ITF – International Transport Workers’ Federation Arab World Regional Conference in Oran.

You can read the speech I gave below.

Dear friends,

Dear comrades,

I am happy and proud that as President of the ETF I can speak here today at the ITF Arab World Conference.

I am particularly proud and delighted because the countries of Europe and the countries of the Arab world are in fact neighbors with a common border, the Mediterranean.

Which means we share a lot.

We share a past

But we trade unionists, above all, we want to share a common future, a future of solidarity. 

And yes, our affiliates face the same challenges.

Deregulation.

Privatisation.

The low-cost model that they try to impose on us everywhere.

The exploitation of workers.

Attacks on unions and union representatives.

There are so many levels at which our affiliates, the European trade unions, and those in the Arab world can collaborate and therefore must collaborate.

And we already do.

In aviation we have developed the joint medco project.

And this collaboration between our unions in the aviation sector demonstrates that we have every interest to work together. 

Let’s first talk about global warming and climate change.

We all know earth is getting warmer with all the negative consequences.

Extreme heat, forest fires, floods, shortage of drinking water and large-scale famines. 

This kind of problems don’t stop neither on either side of the Mediterranean.

We will not accept workers to pay the price for this climate change.

We want the polluters to be called out.  Let us together call on employers and governments to invest in sustainable innovation, in public transport and in infrastructure.

Comrades,

After the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria we directly launched a humanitarian campaign.

And as President of the ETF, I am extremely proud that the ITF and the ETF together have been able to develop this international solidarity.

Comrades,

Some want Europeans to believe that refugees and immigrants are the cause of the crises with which we are confronted in Europe.

But we trade unionists know that no one leaves their country for fun.

Refugees coming to Europe flee for wars, for famine, for poverty…

Not only do we have to be extremely vigilant and rigid with regard to racism and with regard to exclusion.

We also have to fight together against wars between people, against starvation, against world poverty.

Let’s also talk about human rights.

Around the world, both with you and with us, human rights are in question. 

Journalists and trade unionists are intimidated and sometimes even imprisoned.

I am referring to what happened recently in Tunisia.

We clearly denounce the harassment and imprisonment of Tunisian trade unionists.

And we also denounce that Esther Lynch, the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, was expelled from the country after taking part in a demonstration, as a sign of solidarity with Tunisian trade unions.

The right to strike, the right to organize trade union actions, freedom of press, these are human rights! 

And it is our responsibility to defend these human rights.  And let’s be clear, comrades, we demand that all trade unionists who are today in prison – anywhere in the world – be released unconditionally.

Allow me to take this opportunity to explicitly thank the ITF of the Arab world, in the person of Bilal Malkawi and Nermin Al-Sharif for their intervention in an incident with Italian fishermen.

Thanks to your intervention, these fishermen, who were detained on Libyan territory, were released.  You have proven that international solidarity is not an empty word for Arab trade unionists, but that it materializes in practice.

Comrades

We, trade unionists, always have our heads in the clouds.

We 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!

Together we are stronger!

On January 25 2023, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) hosted the EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean, and the European Parliament’s TRAN Committee coordinators – Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP), Petar Vitanov (S&D), Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA) and Elena Kountoura (The Left) in a panel discussion on the “Future for Transport”.

In front of an audience of policymakers, transport attachés of the national permanent representations to the EU, representatives of employers’ associations and other transport stakeholders, the debate centred on the causes of and possible solutions to the structural issues facing transport and transport workers, revolving mainly around the unprecedented labour shortages and the deteriorating working conditions and salaries in transport.

As ETF President, I represented transport workers on this panel discussion. Afterwards, ETF caught up with me to ask some questions about the key topics of the discussion.

If you had to pick up three priorities to address the current problem in transport work, what would these be?

“We need to put people at the centre of transport – workers and users/customers. We must re-shuffle transport and it’s goals and priorities should reflect these people. We need a pact, a political plan with clear objectives that puts people first. Putting people first is a political choice, not a utopian ideal. If we have political willingness, it can be reached, and this is what ETF and all our unions are doing daily: working to put people, and transport workers, at the centre of transport and transport policy.

There is an inspection and enforcement problem in transport. The Mobility Package was the outcome of many discussions between trade unions and the European Parliament and Commission, and we came to a good result that would tackle social dumping and exploitation in transport. It was a good result, but the question is – what is enforced? Is legislation backed by inspections and enforcement? Legislation at the national level against social dumping and exploitation existed already before the Mobility Package, but there were also issues with sufficient inspections, and now we have the same problem.

For example, in Belgium the 2nd largest transport company was caught by inspection services and police organising social dumping and even human trafficking. This began a whole discussion of whether there was to be an investigation and legal proceedings, but the only consequence was a €200,000 fine and a suspended sentence for the CEO. This is only one example of the lack of inspection and enforcement for social legislation. This opens it up for people to question the efficacy of legislation such as the Mobility Package.

The 2nd priority is to do something about precarity of jobs and illegal subcontracting. I agree with the commissioner in that regard, labour shortages exist because the jobs are unstable or badly paid. There are lots of issues in the eCommerce and logistics sector – precariousness and low quality jobs are a big issue.

A 3rd priority is minimum wage. There was a big discussion in the European Union around minimum wage. We don’t want that all workers throughout Europe are paid the same, we need decent wages everywhere and we can achieve this through good CBAs. Is it too much to ask that all have a minimum wage to ensure them a decent living? And this should definitely apply to third-country nationals to ensure that there is no exploitation. This would create quality and attractive employment for all, and help lessen labour shortages in transport.

Some of the other panellists today advocate for further liberalisation, but they must understand that it’s not normal to discover nearly 200 road freight drivers in Denmark in a camp living in unacceptable circumstances, as our unions did. This motivates us unions to lobby for regulation and legislation that protects these people. We saw in maritime that P&O fired 800 workers through a video message  and replaced them instantly with cheap labour – this is not only unacceptable, but not a viable method to organise transport.

We don’t need to create regulation only for more bureaucracy, we must create efficient regulations to control and combat exploitation in transport. If we can clean up transport through regulation, we will answer the problem of labour shortages. Young people don’t want to work in transport, because they understand that the conditions are bad. We must create quality transport to motivate young people to work in this sector. We must realise that there is a real problem in transport and that labour shortages will exist for a long time unless we adapt.

Moreover, labour should be organised in a way to make it accessible for all to do that job. It is not normal that baggage handlers suffer broken knees, shoulders and backs at 45. We must reorganise work to make it more ergonomic. We must regulate to ensure the health and safety of workers. Baggage handlers lift more than 5 tonnes per day, and there are many other examples from different transport sectors – so we must reorganise this so that all workers, no matter men or women, can work easily and safely, and then there will be more women in transport.”

Do you think that the EU has given up on employment in sectors such as shipping and long-distance truck driving? If not, how could we reverse the current situation, and how could we put an end to social dumping practices in transport?

“We as unions are not giving up on this and we won’t.  But the priority is clear: whether it is an EU citizen or a third country national, we need the same working conditions, that have to be the ones of the place where the work is performed. We can make it cheaper and cheaper, but the truth is the process is not bottomless. We have to make conditions decent: everyone’s welcome to come and work in the EU at EU conditions.  As an example: why can’t the seafarers employed on vessels that trade in European waters have the right to European salaries? Many European countries and the EU have given up on maritime employment many years ago and yet they haven’t learnt from past mistakes. We have been asking for a European maritime space for years now, where seafarers enjoy European conditions.

We have continued along the same way with road and then urban public transport and now airports. This trend is becoming more and more visible and it is the duty of policy-makers to put an end to it. It is highly hypocrite to complain about flights being cancelled or delayed due to lack of staff and close an eye on the bad working conditions at handling companies. 

It is clear that policy decisions have created these situations. One example on all is aviation: the push to extreme liberalization, the push to be cheap, to competition, has created year by year the chaos that we experienced last summer. We keep being asked the question: how can we save the holiday season? How can we save the summer? Well, there’s no magic stick, just a profound review of policies and a rethink of the sector on the whole can heal a sick sector such as aviation.

The same mistake should not be made in other sectors.  As an example: The European Commission is currently revising the Train Drivers’ Directive. ETF is highly concerned by several of the proposals the Commission makes, as they would seriously endanger the safety on the rail, for example by lowering the language knowledge requirement for drivers. Drivers not being able to speak to colleagues, to infrastructure managers, or in the worst case to emergency services creates a serious risk. European policy makers must listen to the expert advice of train drivers to keep the job safe and attractive.”

Modal shift has been a priority for EU and national transport policies for decades already. Why do you think this objective has not been reached and what should be done differently?

“I believe there have been a number of issues, among them underinvestment and privatisation that have not worked.

We must make public transport more attractive than the car. Public transport must be organised in a way to make it more attractive, that’s how simple it is. To make it more attractive it must have more frequent journeys, at earlier and later times. This needs greater public investment  but also a sector that is attractive for workers to work at these earlier and later times.

Road transport is very cheap and road freight is incentivised  to shift to rail. The price of road transport is kept artificially low through rules not being enforced and unscrupulous companies undermining social benefits and working conditions to save money. The same is true for aviation.

There are high ambitions for the railway sector to play a key part in more sustainable transport systems, but for rail to be able to live up to these expectations, the sector needs investments, not only in infrastructure and rolling stock, but especially also to attract and retain enough workers.”

We have seen many experiments in Spain and Germany offering low-fares for citizens, to encourage greater public ridership. This is linked to transport poverty, but trade unions have some doubts about the implementation of these plans. Could you please elaborate on this?

“Public transport is a public good and cannot be a profit-making activity. Public transport played a key role in guaranteeing mobility to essential workers and to allow low-income people access to jobs and services. The energy crisis brings another urgency to good public transport.

But, there is no public transport without workers and still public transport fails to attract workforce. The shortage of staff becomes critical and undermines any attempt at shifting ridership to public transport

So, in our view low and free fare should be regarded as a means of redistribution of wealth and  applied in a targeted manner. This approach ensures fare revenue and a certain balance. Low or free fares must also be planned and agreed upon in consultation with the social partners  and public transport must be compensated by other revenue sources to allow investment in infrastructure, fleet improvement, etc. Low and free fares must be accompanied by measures that ensure adequate levels of pay and working conditions and must be a part of long-term national strategies.”

Were there any agreements among the panellists here today?

“It is true that we agreed to disagree on a lot of topics here today, but there have been many issues that we have found agreement. Safe parking areas for drivers, this is something that we found agreement on. We need safe parking areas with decent facilities, where good food is available and accessible, and we should develop our agreements on this.

We disagreed on many topics, such as the investment in rail. While many rail services in Europe are state-owned, these states have disinvested in rail. We still have concrete examples of the outcomes of the privatisation of rail. So the dichotomy told by some panellists today is false, it is not between state-owned and private rail, but between invested and non-invested rail services and other public transport.

The commissioner and I agreed on the fact that we need well-paid and well-protected workers in transport in order to make transport a sustainable and attractive sector for workers. We have also agreed on the modal shift, we need to solve the problem of social dumping in freight transport, otherwise the modal shift and intermodality won’t be successful, because it will still be too cheap to transport freight by road. So we have agreed to clean up the trucking industry, and we have agreed that there is a lot of work to do on this.“

In Brussels the first European gathering took place of riders and unions dedicated to Just Eat. A gathering that is organised in the framework of a project, financed by ETF, and runned by the Danish union 3F and the Belgian Transport Union BTB.

ETF is a European federation of transport unions. Today, the ETF represents more than 5 million transport workers from more than 200 transport unions and 38 European countries.

So we could ask ourselves: why does a federation that organises workers from the trucking industry, the dockworkers, workers in aviation, rail,… set up a project about “Just Eat / Takeaway”.

I would say: it is all about the platform industry!

Just Eat is a company in this fairly new sector, a sector that is still searching for its place, a sector that is still struggling to have a fair and right business model, a sector where there is still a lot of room for improvement for the worker. It is also a sector propelled by the digitalisation and globalisation. It is a sector where one eats competitors or gets eaten themselves.

All over Europe (and beyond), trade unions are working to strengthen workers’ rights in these new sectors and companies.

And let’s be clear, a lot of these platform companies have a more than lousy reputation when we talk about workers rights. These companies are often multinationals, Multinationals that have a global vision, that have a global strategy,

Workers face the same problems and hazards in several countries. It is therefore necessary for us, as trade unions, also to work together on this at a European level.

Together we can achieve more, together we are stronger. After all, there are  quite a lot of challenges we have to deal with: In Belgium, a workers salary and his or her’s working conditions depend on to what joint bargaining committee you belong.

And for us, Belgian unions, delivery workers like riders of Just Eat should be part of the transport joint committee.

But riders are not placed in the joint committee where they belong, that of freight haulage, including the sector-wide agreed rules and conditions.

No, they were enrolled in a joint committee with less protection, with lower minimum wages. Just Eat deliberately chose to ignore the proper sector, not out of ignorance, but knowingly. Because that way they have to pay the riders less, because that way the riders have fewer rights and protection.

It is a large-spread technique by platform companies that is called declassification.

And of course this is not the only problem,

For instance, riders have to purchase some of their necessary equipment themselves. An essential part of their equipment is a good, modern and therefore costly smartphone. A rider cannot work without it but the company does not provide this essential work tool.

Riders obviously work for a living. But the wages for platform workers also in Just Eat are not as it should be. It is not a wage they can live on.

Regular promises to increase wages are made though. But in practice, very little comes of these promises.

The riders’ area of operation is public roads, often in crowded cities. Every time a rider goes out, she or he enters traffic as a vulnerable road user. Sometimes in an environment with adapted cycling infrastructure, but in many cities in an environment where the car is king. Work accidents are thus a reality for riders. And yet we see that these often go unreported. That these often go un-recognised. This cannot be.

Employers are not only responsible to keep their workers working in the safest possible environment, if something goes wrong then they need to take responsibility. Riders are humans, not disposable products.

In Europe, and certainly in Belgium and Danmark, there is a decades-long tradition of social dialogue. Social dialogue is necessary to create a good and safe working environment.

And yet they manage to reject social dialogue in Belgium and many other countries. Despite the reality and size of the companies, despite the large number of employees, they refuse to comply with the rules of the game. It is time for real social dialogue.

ETF is following a double strategy to tackle the problems of riders in the platform economy.

We want better regulation, and we are working very hard to have a European regulation for platform workers that betters life of the workers. Actually there is a big discussion in European Parliament about the platform regulation. And we give full speed in lobby-ing and action to have better legislation.

But we also want to build union power with the workers. Being present in companies like Just Eat Organising the workers and try to make them speak with one voice to their employer. Makes them stronger and will change their working conditions for the best.

This conference is meant to get to know each other. To exchange experiences: what is going wrong, but also what is going right.

Today is a kick-off:

How are things going in the various countries

What statute, or statutes, do the riders have in the various countries

What rights does everybody have

What agreements have been made, have collective agreements been reached

How can we help each other

These are today’s goals, a first step to improve working conditions together. To start social dialogue. To do our work as trade unions.

Workers’ rights have always been created out in solidarity.

Solidarity between workers of a company,

Solidarity between workers of a country,

Solidarity between workers globally.

It is together that we are stronger!