Research for Education
Completed Research Projects
Organising Informal Transport Workers
The ITF research on organising informal transport workers in now complete. The four reports arising from the research are available in English, French and Spanish. The study consisted of 3 case studies (Benin, Philippines and Zambia) of affiliates organising informal transport workers, and an overall report with an analysis of the debates and developments relating to informal work and informal transport work in particular.
Overview report
The overview report integrates both general information and information from the case studies. In each area of enquiry it first examines the issues from the view of the informal economy and employment generally, and then moves on to its manifestation in the transport industry, through the case studies and other examples.
The unions in the case studies primarily organise in the informal urban road passenger sector, and specifically in the informal taxi (of many varieties) sector.
The overview report, whilst addressing informality in different sectors of the transport industry, has as its main focus organising workers in the informal taxi industry. This reflects the size and importance of this sector and the availability of information.
The report includes a range of examples to bring alive the issues, and to provide an educational resource for the ITF and for unions. Each section begins with questions to be addressed and ends with a summary in the form of key points.
Individual Case Studies
The case studies cover the following affiliates:
National Transport Workers’ Union(NTU), Philippines
Syndicat National des Zemidjan du Benin (SYNAZEB), Benin
National Union of Transport and Allied Workers (NUTAW), Zambia
The reports give a background to factors leading to the development of the informal economy in each country. The economic and legal environment within which informal transport workers and their organisations operate is analysed. Issues affecting informal transport workers such as a lack of social security, their relationship with the authorities and the public are also assessed.
Informal workers attitudes towards informal employment and trade unions are also captured within the context of the difficulties of unionising these workers. The organising strategies and actions undertaken by the unions in the study are assessed and evaluated in order to out lessons for other unions.
The research took a year and half to complete and was supported by FNV Mondiaal.
To download the reports, please see the end of this page.
Click here for further project details.
Transport Corridors in Southern Africa
The ITF education department together with the ITF dockers’ and inland transport sections commissioned a research paper from the Labour Research Service in South Africa with the support of the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity (ACILS), on the Southern Africa transport corridors, which includes Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. The purpose was to collect information that would help inform how to strengthen trade union organisation and coordination along the Southern African Development Community (SADC) transport corridors.
Countries within the study are coastal countries that play a strategic role in the SADC region in handling exports to, and imports from, other regions of the world.
The research shows how numerous regional and intra-regional integration areas, multinational corporations and financial institutions are playing an increasing and differential role in the restructuring and development of transport in the region. It suggests that trade unions need to respond by stepping up their efforts to understand and respond to these new structures.
For the full report and or article from Transport International Magazine on the report can be found at the end of this page under related pages.
Details of some of the recommendations from the report please click here.
International Financial Institutions and Transport Restructuring
Three research papers have been produced as part of the ITF/FES project entitled Developing Trade Union Policy and Alternatives to Neo-Liberal Transport Restructuring. The first paper entitled International Institutions and Transport Liberalisation and Privatisation focuses on explains keyconcepts relating to transport restructuring and the various forms they take in practice including privatisation, concenssioning, contracting, divestiture etc and also institutions involved in shaping transport restructuring such as the World Bank and its sister organisations and the WTO.
The paper outlines the policy processes and procedures resulting in the actual effects on the transport industry. Finally the paper illustrates the impact of the World Bank approach as had on various the transport sectors including rail, maritime, road etc.
To download this and for details of the the second and third papers please
click here.
Click here for details of the Project
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