General Secretary's blog

I doubt many people would have predicted the turbulent events of the past year. The global economic crisis threatens livelihoods across the world, and puts new pressure on our affiliates. At least there’s some comfort in the fact that Barack Obama will be leading the US response, rather than a Republican administration.

For the ITF, our year ended with the railway conference in Curitiba, Brazil.  There have been massive changes in the nature of the railway industry since our last conference in Bangkok in 2005.  Two countries – New Zealand and Estonia – have renationalised, but privatisation carries on relentlessly. Promoting public transport will continue to be a key theme for the ITF in 2009. We’ll be working together with the Public Services International (PSI) to defend living standards and keep decent jobs.

In this environment, it’s all the more important to pursue our organising globally strategy, adopted at the last congress. This is why we’ve made some changes in secretariat structure to accommodate a more coordinated approach.  We’ve established a strategic coordinating team to ensure that ITF resources are used to back programmes that strengthen unions in every region.  And increasingly we are helping unions establish organising projects and programmes in key corridors and hubs.

We are now focusIng on organising in new areas. In 2009 we will launch a handbook aimed at organising precarious/unprotected workers, featuring new techniques to organise workers who don’t traditionally join unions. In 2008 we held our first youth conference in Brussels, and plan to focus on the needs of young people at our regional conferences in 2009. And we’ve taken another big step in organising women, with the appointment of a fulltime coordinator.

There’s plenty more to come from the ITF in 2009. Our aim is to keep transport unions strong and effective, in the face of the unprecendented challenges we’ll be facing. But that’s another story… In the meantime, let me wish everyone in the ITF family season’s greetings and best wishes for the new year.

Edited: 01/06/2009 at 03:56 PM by DavidC

Piracy has made a big splash in the mainstream press this week, with the hijacking of the Sirius Star, a Liberia-flagged, Saudi-owned oil tanker. For us, this isn't a new story - pirate activity has been on the increase for some time, particularly in the Gulf of Aden. This is why we recently negotiated conditions for many seafarers, which entitle them to extra pay, rights and ensure their families would receive compensation in the event of their death when passing this area, which is virtually a war zone.

But it isn't enough. The hijacking of the Sirius Star shows that pirates are getting bolder. We're reaching a tipping point where all control is being lost and the areas affected are daily becoming wider. There's a steady growth in the numbers of pirates coming from Somalia as local warlords see their neighbours' power and influence growing after expanding into this area of criminal activity. Organised gangs are working far out in international waters using bigger fishing vessels and motherships.

Shipping owners are diverting their routes, insurance premiums are going up, and this all means rising costs in a difficult financial time. For our affiliates and their workers, this means that lives and livelihoods are under risk.

This is why we want decisive action from the military against the mother ships, from which these attacks are being launched, rather than the odd defensive skirmish. We want decisive action: it doesn't matter where the anti-pirate operations happen, so long as they do happen. If the navies actively intercept and arrest the pirates, and in particular take on the motherships, then the pirates will be targeted before they have chance to scuttle off and ply their trade elsewhere.

In other world news, the G20 nations met last week to bash out a solution to the global economic crisis, no small task for a one-day conference. Did they deliver from a trade union perspective? The ITUC/TUAC assessment seems to be: well, sort of, a bit. The G20 declaration does call for greater global regulation. But overall, the document is worryingly short on detail, and less open to labour voices than we might have hoped. Only time will tell whether this will make a difference to those that really matter: the hard-working people across the globe who fund the gambling sprees of hedge-fund fatcats and the like.

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Barack Obama is a worthy winner of the US presidential election, and I'd like to add my congratulations to the tidal wave of goodwill pouring his way. This is a great result for the labour movement in America and the rest of the world. Trade unions in the US played a major role in Obama's campaign, from providing volunteers to knock on doors to pledging support at the highest levels. It's a reminder that trade unions can have a real impact on the global stage, and the US labour movement should feel justly proud of its efforts.

I'm not sure I envy Obama's in-tray as president: with the global economic crisis in full swing, he'll have his work cut out to bring America back from the brink. But it can be done. If Obama supports the role of workers, this can only help to solve the crisis. I'd also like to see him support workers' rights in the US, and those employed by US companies in other countries to create a genuinely equitable labour environment.

This is a time for celebration: after years of neo-liberal dominance, we look forward to the US leading the way in a progressive global agenda. We look forward to the continued strengthening of the maritime industry. And we look forward to a renewed hope and energy from the US, a country whose fortunes affect us all.



And another thing...

Is there an upside to the economic crisis? It might not seem that way, but it could provide an opportunity to establish a system of global governance that is much more in the interests of working people in every region than the status quo.

Labour leaders from the G20 countries will be meeting next week. The trade union summit aims to put pressure on world leaders to adopt policies designed to protect working people in the current uncertain climate. The Council of Global Unions will be represented there by Philip Jennings of UNI. We hope the event will make a real difference to the global approach.

In the meantime, I would appreciate feedback from our affiliated unions on the impact of the crisis: how is it affecting your union's members and on the industries in which they work. Please send them by mail or fax to the ITF for my attention or email me.


Edited: 11/06/2008 at 02:08 PM by DavidC