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!

The Executive Committee of the ETF gathered in Vienna for the first real meeting of the ETF’s Executive Committee after the congress in Budapest.

The ETF congress in Budapest was enjoyed very much by all participants. A lot of decisions were taken there. The work program was adopted, 19 motions were passed to Congress. But now the hard work starts. Making those decisions concrete, implementing an integrating them in the day to day work, setting up campaigns, …

A lot of work on the plate of the General Secretary, the secretariat and the sections. But also for all of us.  Affiliates take the decisions at our congress, but are also responsible to execute them giving the support that is needed to the team to make it real. So we will need all of you to work on the objectives we decided on.

Let’s face it, the situation for us, the trade unions is not easy for the moment. We are still not completely out of the covid crisis, and we are facing already another deep crisis.  The war in Ukraine, but also speculation flames the inflation.  The energy prices we all have to pay are mountain high, shopping in the supermarket is extremely expensive, …

For the people we represent, it becomes more and more difficult to pay the bills at the end of the month. That is why a lot of us, trade unions are in “action modus”. It’s been quite a “hot” fall this year with strikes in several countries. Strikes of transport workers who are sick and tired of not receiving fair pay and having to work in indecent working conditions.

Transport workers still having to cope with the refusal of employers and workers’ federations denying them decent pay rises and improved working conditions.  Although the employers’ organisations themselves predict a big shortage of workers in different sectors in the near future. IRU for example is predicting that the shortage of truck drivers will triple between now and 2026.

And sure, employers will tell us that competition is hard, and that they have no margins for pay rise. Well, the big electricity provider in Belgium, Engie is making millions because of the energy crises, and their shareholders in Paris are cashing big profits.

And Jef Bezos sends rockets in space, while the Amazon staff is exploited and denied fundamental rights.

So it is not more than normal that in the meanwhile in several countries like France, the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium there are general or sector linked strike actions. And also here in Austria the rail workers will be on strike this week because of the lack of investments in rail, for decent jobs, pay, decent conditions and decent rail services.  We will organise a solidarity action during the coming days with our Austrian friends of rail that are on strike.

Different comrades were also present during the ITUC congress in Melbourne last week. Some of us in the ITF delegation, others in their national delegation.

I would like to mention the election of the new General Secretary for ITUC, Luca Visentini, who was elected with a majority of more than 70 %. We congratulated him on behalf of ETF, but we hope that he will be able to bring new dynamics in the organisation and to make it even more relevant for the affiliates.

This means of course that Esther Lynch will take over his tasks as General Secretary of ETUC until the elections of a new secretariat within ETUC in May of next year. We all know her, we were able to nominate her, and we know that she will be in big support of ETF.

But when I mention ETUC and ITUC I want to emphasise that the expectations we have of the two organisations are not fulfilled as they should be.  How come  that we have such a big challenge in Europe on inflation and energy prices that are unpayable, with a late or even non-reaction of the commission and the council, without a mobilisation on a European scale by the ETUC?

How come the ETUC is not proposing a mobilisation on a European level to give a clear and strong signal to Europe that we want them to do more and better when it comes on protecting workers purchasing power, salaries and working conditions? I know that Livia Spera, ETF’s General Secretary, with some other European federations and national unions, did plead for it, but just up to now ETUC is not able to put a mobilisation proposal on the table. Since it is my conviction that we will not be able to solve the problems in the different countries, without European coordination, I think we need to continue to insist and asking for European action by ETUC.

ITUC is organizing its 5th congress in Melbourne, from 17 to 22 November. This happens in a globalising world with huge challenges for the international trade union movement. The newly elected leadership of ITUC will have to deliver to keep the workers on the winning side of history.

Not only is globalisation as we knew it changing, but this is coming in a context of deep international crisis.

The covid pandemic is gradually slowing down, leaving behind significant harm to the working class. A lot of workers lost their job, others had to stay at work in extremely dangerous circumstances and a significant amount of them became ill or even died. We are very proud of what unions did to face this crisis but undoubtedly many of them have been impacted.

Covid also showed us how our economies and political systems are interconnected to each other and how what happens in one part of the world can affect severely workers on the other side of the globe

While we are still recovering from this pandemic, climate change is progressing at a pace that goes beyond what was forecasted. Only right-wing Trumpers still deny that the world is warming up, and the awareness that we will have to take action grows ever stronger. However, who will pay the price for this fight against climate change? Are the workers or the industry at the origin of this situation?

On top of that, we face the challenge of social dumping which is escalating in a “race to the bottom”. It causes job loss, salary decreases and competition between workers. In short, the quality of work is going down, pressure and stress for workers is going up. This is causing a huge shortage of good jobs: people simply do not want to do some jobs anymore because working conditions are appalling. This is a unique occasion for the international labour movement, giving trade unions an extraordinary negotiating power with employers, governments and international organisations.

And last but not least, wars are raging all over the planet and growing tensions between “old” and “new” superpowers create instability. The war in Ukraine is causing victims all over the world. It has led to a massive increase of energy prices and instability in the food industry, striking the poorest first.

They are global!

Multinational corporations and ‘big data’ companies do have a global strategy. The days when a company’s decisions were made on a national level are long gone. Big corporations like Amazon, Meta, Uber, Lufthansa, Maersk … are active all over the world and often have a lot of political influence.

This is why the importance of international trade unions cannot be overstated. If ‘they’ have a global strategy, so should ‘we’. Those trade unions should be organized on a company, sectoral and national level to optimally defend workers’ rights. But if we are unable to develop common approaches and shared strategies, if we do not exchange experiences, share information and work together on an international level we are doomed to be on the losing side. Warren Buffet, stock exchange guru, once said: ‘Yes, there is a class struggle, and we are winning.’ Our answer should be: no way, we fight back!

The new leadership that will be elected at the ITUC congress has to build an international organisation ready to attack the global challenges unions are facing. This organization and its leadership should be dynamic, flexible, relevant, visionary and unifying.

Tripartism to be revised

ITUC has to be the workers’ voice in international institutions such as the ILO. But they should also represent the voice of the workers in WTO, G20, …

The relevance of the work that is done for the affiliates must be the main focus of the new leadership. If partaking in tripartite cenacles does not yield any benefits, it is a waste of time. Negotiating agreements and bringing those back to the unions is of the utmost importance to improve the lives of our members. We cannot afford standing at the sidelines and saying no.

So yes, we have to spend time, money and resources to revise tripartism and make it work. Too many attacks on social dialogue and tripartite negotiating have stayed unanswered by our side. It is high time to find allies in the economic and political world, to redevelop collective negotiation and agreements so that we can share the profits of capitalism. Billions of dollars of profits find their way to the wallets of the happy few. The richest percentage of the world owns more than half of the wealth.

Negotiating as long as we can, taking action when we must

Without power we cannot hope to achieve positive results at the bargaining table. The ‘partners’ at the other side of the table must be aware that the union is not a lobby machine. They need to know that we have the numbers, that we have the power, …

Merely talking and being smart will not lead us to major victories. Unions have never obtained results by asking nicely or being clever. Throughout history we have changed the world by organizing, mobilizing, campaigning, … Action is the motor of social progress.

ITUC must become louder and more present in the frontline of the global confrontation with deregulation, liberalization, … We can do this by believing in the power we represent, using that power to create awareness and influence decision makers and by putting pressure on governments and politicians.

Affiliates really engaging in ITUC

Participating in the Melbourne congress cannot be national unions’ only contribution to the ITUC. The biggest mistake the national unions can make today is to retreat on national level. Sadly, many times that is exactly what they do, thinking they can ‘fix it’ in their own country.

A terrible mistake in a global world. Unfair competition, tax havens, delocalization, just transition … are only a few examples of the problems we face on a global scale.

Unions have to take ownership of what is to be done in ITUC. The ITUC team is David facing Goliath if they do not have the strong support of the unions behind them. The affiliated unions must be ready to engage by relaying campaigns on a
national level, participating in ILO meetings, …

All of this has to be organized by the ITUC leadership. We need campaigns on a global level where every affiliate can join in. I myself am engaged in a national transport union, a national confederation and I am very active in the European an international Transport Workers’ Federation. Yet I have to admit that I have insufficient knowledge of ITUC’s campaigns at the moment. This is first and foremost my own responsibility, but ITUC should ask itself why people don’t know and how they can spread that knowledge more easily. I’m sure the rank-and-file unionists that are aware of the ITUC campaigns are few and far between. If our own people do not know what we do, how could we expect the other stakeholders to know?

A leadership much closer to the affiliates

A capitalist company is led based on
authority, a trade union on democracy. While this difference makes us what we are, it also means that worldwide unionism is a complicated venture. We all want the same thing, but union traditions, cultures and priorities are very different around the globe.

We expect the new leadership of the ITUC to make trade unions’ engagement a priority and to build the future jointly with ITUC members.

ITUC leadership has to deal with this diversity and work patiently to develop a common strategy. A democratic organization where all unions have a voice must stay the priority of our global union. This is no easy task, but it will make unions worldwide stronger against their political and economic counterparts.

The ITUC congress as a new start

The congress in Melbourne should be the start of a reimagining of the organization. We need to build on the strong foundations we have, while reshuffling the cards with which we build our house. Structures and practices that have worked for decades are no longer enough to face the modern challenges.

Progress is impossible without change. This means that after the congress the new leadership should devise fresh and innovative proposals to introduce new life into the organization by giving hope to workers and mobilize them to join the organization.