Joanne Abayasekara, Education Coordinator of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), discusses how globalisation has impacted on the ITF’s approach to trade union education.

For the international labour movement, the new economic and political climate created by globalisation poses a significant challenge. Privatisation has resulted in large-scale job losses in state-run industries. Where there has been job growth, it has occurred in sectors which are difficult to organise or within traditionally unorganised groups. National collective bargaining agreements have been replaced by company-level negotiations or individual contracts and the ultimate control of industries has moved to multi-national corporations based thousands of miles from the shop floor. The result has been shrinking membership numbers and a reduction in the ability of trade unions to represent effectively the interests of those members that are left.

Transport workers have a unique perspective on this process. With the ability to move goods easily between nations a fundamental pre-requisite for the creation of world markets, transport was the first industry to experience the impacts of globalisation. Those impacts have been felt particularly harshly in the maritime sector where global competition is fierce and the stringent regulation necessary in such a potentially hazardous industry is not universally applied. Under the notorious flag of convenience (FOC) system for example, shipowners and operators are permitted to register their vessels in a country other than their own. This allows the unscrupulous to choose those nations offering the cheapest labour, the lowest taxes and the least interest in the health or wellbeing of crews or the ships they sail in.

This pressure to bypass social and environmental concerns to secure higher profits in the face of global competition is a pattern which is reflected across the transport sector. In civil aviation, for example, airlines are contracting out services such as catering and maintenance to the lowest bidders as the industry deregulates. Wages and standards are sacrificed in order to secure contracts.

The ITF responds

With members in more than 130 countries, the ITF has been organising international support for transport trade unions and their members in this rapidly-changing context. Its singular experience in campaigning against the FOC system has given it insight not only into the human costs of unregulated global industries but also into the techniques and strategies for combating their extremes.

The ITF has found that where companies with cross-border operations are ultimately determined to cut jobs, reduce wages or sacrifice safety without negotiation or reference to the social consequences of their actions, practical solidarity by colleagues in other countries – boycotts, sympathy strikes and protests – are one of the most effective means of challenging them. Port workers in Australia, cabin crew in Africa and distribution workers in Germany have all benefited from such direct support in recent years.

At its world congress in New Delhi in 1998, the ITF agreed a programme of action for strengthening the capacity of its affiliated trade unions to deliver this practical assistance. In a landmark document, Mobilising Solidarity, it identified a framework for building new structures, systems and methods for delivering international solidarity. Among the initiatives proposed are the need for better co-ordination between unions nationally and internationally, redirecting energy and resources towards campaigning, identifying new means of action, and developing faster and more effective methods of communication.

The need for education

Fundamental to Mobilising Solidarity is the need to provide effective education and training about the importance of international solidarity itself. Despite the impact of globalisation on the transport industry, the ITF has found that the level of understanding of international issues among transport union members is very poor. Some senior union officials have a limited or even negative appreciation of their own union’s international activities and while most affiliates attach importance to trade union education, international concerns are frequently excluded from their education programmes.

Changing attitudes and tackling ignorance about international issues are therefore crucial to the ITF’s ability to facilitate effective international solidarity. Over the past two years the Federation has launched new programmes to develop understanding among trade unionists of how globalisation works and how members and their representatives can build national, regional and international solidarity.

Internationalising education and training

The ITF’s education strategy is based on a flexible approach through which it provides core courses and materials, and assists affiliates in developing the structures and securing the financial support to deliver effective training on international issues at local and national level.

This has involved a range of initiatives. In August 1999, for example, the ITF piloted its first summer school, designed to provide intensive training in international issues to key personnel in ITF-affiliated trade unions. The programme included sessions on globalisation, privatisation and deregulation, and promoting effective solidarity. Feedback on the summer school was very positive, with many of the participants returning to their trade unions intent on including international modules in their own education programmes. A second summer school is planned for this year.

Tailor-made courses have been offered to meet the needs of specific affiliates. For example, the ITF ran a seminar on basic trade unionism for representatives from the General Trade Union of Maritime Transport of Egypt, who were facing a newly-privatised shipping industry. The ITF is also providing induction programmes and study visits at its headquarters in London for trade union activists and officials to familiarise themselves with the operation of the Federation and its eight industrial sections. Systematic training of the Federation’s own network of sub-regional and national coordinators is underway. An education handbook, detailing information about the Federation and its work has also been produced and is available via the ITF’s website (http://www.itf.org.uk).

Greater emphasis is now also being given to integrating education and training into ITF campaigns and into sectional and regional activities. In 1999 seminars held in Africa and Asia to promote the aims of the Federation’s ‘International Road Transport Action Day’ were also used to reinforce union cooperation and to explore how local and regional problems fitted into global concerns about the road transport industry. The positive response of the road transport unions in these regions to the call to support the action day reflected this extra effort.

The ITF has met with similar success in its attempts to match potential financial donors with unions in developing countries looking to develop their international links and understanding. In Latin America a three-year project in Panama to support the training of trainers in the FITTTAMPS transport union has been established with the support of the Finnish funding organisation, SASK. In Costa Rica a two-year trade union leadership development project for the UNATROPYT transport union is being funded by the ITF’s Canadian affiliate CAW. Other projects in preparation include a regional women’s programme, a Central America dockers’ programme, a regional railways programme and a project in Paraguay.

Such activities are not solely focused on the labour movement in the developing world. Sharing information among trade unions in Europe and North America about international issues is also vitally important. The ITF is working with International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions on a development education project for UK trade unions.

The ITF’s approach to education is constantly evolving. Future projects include the establishment of a worldwide network of affiliates’ education officers to allow for the exchange of ideas, materials and resources, a basic trade education union programme in Central Asia, and organising seminars for women in Central and Eastern Europe. However, helping to increase understanding of international issues, how globalisation works and why greater trade union cooperation is essential will remain central to all of the ITF’s education activities. Managed correctly, globalisation of the world’s economy could offer faster economic growth, a fairer distribution of wealth and improvements in living standards for all. The ITF believes that effective international solidarity is one of the best guarantees that globalisation will live up to this potential.