ITIEN broad aim
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John Darker speaks to international Transport Workers Federation official Johann Haul and assesses the union's role as a counter-balance to the power of international cap
ALMOST EVERYONE in road transport knows what a multinational company is. In motor manufacturing, petroleum, chemicals, computers, and an increasing range of products, Droduction plants in a number of :ountries may be controlled 'ram the United States, Germany, Japan — even Britain.
But how many people know that multi-national company organisation has, its counterpart, and indeed itself influences, international trade union cooperation?
The International Transport VVorkers. Federation was founded in 1896 and there are a number of similar bodies set up in the last century when farseeing trade-unionists realised that the economic and social interests of workers could not be achieved by purely national forms of organisation.
The ITF has very broad aims which some might feel to be as much political as economic. It seeks "to defend internationally the economic and social interests of transport workers and their trade unions; to defend democracy and freedom and to oppose colonialism, imperialism, totaliterianism and aggression in all their forms and any discrimination based on colour, nationality, sex, race or creed."
It promotes universal recognition of fundamental trade union rights, particularly freedom of association and the right to organise and bargain collectively. It supports the work of the United Nations and other international bodies working for peace based on social justice and economic progress.
It aids affiliated trade unions to defend and promote "the economic social, occupational, educational and cultural interests of their members'. and it helps the member organisations by disseminating research material on working conditions, labour legislation, trade union organisation and education,
collective bargaining and so forth.
Such a broad "remit," admirable and idealistic in theory, meets very considerable difficulties in practice. Social and economic conditions, standards of education, the legal background and the attitudes of employers vary enormously in different countries.
There are obvious language problems which hinder understandings between trade unions just as much as in other international bodies such as the United Nations and the European Community. And on the mundane question of wages, experience has proved that it is almost impossible to make worthwhile comparisons across frontiers.
To simplify the work of the ITF there are eight industrial sections catering for workers of all categories employed in railways, road transport, inland navigation, ports and docks, shipping, fisheries, civil aviation, and travel bureaux. In addition, there is a special seafarers' section which promotes fair practices in the maritime industry.
Anyone working at or visiting ports regularly would know that ships' crews comprise many nationalities. Collective bargaining in the sense known to many British transport trade unions and employers is a visionary dream for many seafarers .— and perhaps a nightmare for some ships' captains and shipping lines!
It remains true today, as it was in the early days of ITF, that formal pay and conditions bargaining, especially with FoC (Flag of Convenience) ships, causes the ITF many problems. Occasionally, incidents in ports erupt into the media, shedding heat, if not light, on a confused situation.
Understandably, the welfare of workers in maritime has always preoccupied ITF, which was originally known as the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River .Workers. Such celebrated British trade union heroes as Ben Tillett and Tom Mann were founder members. Indeed, Tom Mann was the first president. (or secretary). On those days the terms were more or less interchangeable.
Road hauliers who have had good reason in the past decade to know about the militancy of dock workers — and of the relative feather-bedding of big redundancy hand-outs — may like to be reminded that as long ago as 1896, great variations in wages paid by different ports provided the -steam" to set up the body that became the ITF.
In the 1890s, though the tonnage under the British flag grew considerably, the number of men in the Mercantile Marine fell by over 20,000 in five years whilst pay was slashed by more than a pound a month in many cases. Those were the days!
Today the ITF operate from new offices in a building they own in Great Suffolk Street, London SE 1, with the Harold Lewis as general secretary. When 1 visited them I noted the special electronic lock on the entrance door and wondered whether it had anything to do with possible "rough stuff" in a labour dispute! It appears that the arrangements — external microphone etc — were suggested by the local police because the area is a bit run-down.
The ITF reckon to speak for 31/2-4m trade unionists worldwide organised in over 400 trade unions. The finance comes from what I feel is an absurdly low contribution from each member, a mere 111/2p. Our. own Transport and General Workers' Union affiliate to ITF on 350,000 members who are employed in transport. Hence, if my arithmetic is right, the TGWU coughs up around £40,000 a year.
Not all unions are as flush with funds as that administeri by Mr Mostyn Evans. Graha Brothers, the ITF researi officer, says some unions pay little as 10 per cent of t1 standard contribution. Tt National Union of Railwaymi affiliate on about half 9 numbers of the TGWU, co tributing some five per cent ITF revenue.
In theory, if all transpc workers in all countries we members of trade unioi affiliated to ITF, transport wou be a well-paid profession, hor fully doing a professional job. practice, there are snags.
To begin with, the Sovi Bloc trade unions are not "frei in the sense accepted by ITF, they could not be parties un the two rival Federations pat, up their quarrel. Then there a such "professionals" as g pilots, some of whom a members of ITF-affiliated unio and others, the majority, in separate organisation, IFALP Transport managers, of cour: may not be members of tra unions affiliated to ITF, thougt number are.
In practice, even if all t world's transport workers, frc professional managers to h. issuers, were part of ITF, thE would not often be a single iss on which all were united. The in road haulage could differ t ause the structure of their inu$tries differ. Railwaymen may ot all see eye to eye, though all )ight point to the road haulage lembers as competitors helped nduly by road networks paid )r by tax payers.
Competition between transon modes is a fact of life for agers and equally for the a4Ie unions involved. When ta'ked to Mr Johann Hauf, the trian assistant general eciretary of -ITF, he denied eFfemently that he was a Loreaucrat insisting that his mbition was to be fair to the DOI membership. Mr Hauf, /Hp began working life as a ourer on the Austrian la lways, and later turned to )r.rly driving in Vienna, is clearly rtian of parts. He represents 19 in three important sectors, iIvays, road transport and innJ waterways_ The ITF work closely with the it motional. Labour Organisao and Mr Hauf took pride in h wing me a copy of a new lo vent/on on hours of work and as .periods in road transport ihich was formulated and 9 ed at Geneva in June 1979 t he 65th ILO International a our Conference,
his is what I would term an bling measure, with plenty rf loopholes for application by jo ernments vvHch find the Convention too difficult to digest all at one.
A little imagination convinces one that to get a convention applicable in every member country demands great ingenuity in the drafting. In fact, an ILO meeting of experts decided that a new instrument should be formulated in October 1974, since when the ITF has hoovered away.
Space forbids any attempt to summarise a wordy document but typical of its flexibility is Article 5; where clause 1 says "No driver shall be allowed to drive continuously for more than
four hours without a break" and clause 2, says -The competent
authority. ... taking into account particular national conditions, may authorise the period refer red to in paragraph 1 . . to be exceeded by not more than one hour."
Mr Hauf drew my attention to Article 9, clause 2, which called for ratifying countries to describe local or national conditions, as well as extensions, reductions or exceptions, to the Convention, eg variations on nine hours a day or 48 hours per week and 10 hours consecutive rest during any 24-hour period.
Member countries would have to report progress in the direction of stricter application of the tougher clauses under Article 22 of the Constitution of the ILO. • Mr Hauf pointed out that the flexible provisiors of the Con vention were necessary to get the developing countries to agree to it. He was critical of the employers spokesman who, he said, "wrecked the quorum by abstaining."
Of course, by pressing for regular reports of progress in a Convention shot through with loopholes, the ITF is doing everything possible to standardise working conditions, especially those touching on safety, throughout the world. Patience and persistence may win in the end, but I fear some ITF aspirations will not be achieved in this century.
And because progress is slow, I get the feeling that the ITF Congress, meeting every three years, may not be taken too seriously by some of the participants. Some familiar names attend from Britain's trade unions: Mr Jack Jones, later general secretary TGWU, is still one of the ITF vicepresidents.
Trade union leaders would be less than human if ITF deliberations, much concerned with long-term trends of employment
conditions in membercountries, provide a relatively relaxed occasion. As has been stressed earlier, truly international, topical issues of transport policy are not numerous. And the media do not focus on ITF meetings as happens at the TUC Congress in Britain.
But ITF does provide a focus for transport workers to make their point in the international area. They can talk to the influential International Labour Organisation — an off-shoot of the old League of Nations set up in 1919. And the Economic and Social Committee of the EEC is regularly in touch with ITF.
From the ITF centre, issues which loom large in some countries have to be put in perspective. Johann Haul sees the tachograph issue as concerning British lorry drivers in Britain almost exclusively. ''It is not an issue on the Continent, though some drivers don't like tachos, and some French employers feel tachographs restrict traffic operations."
Johann Hauf thinks that in several European countries there are not enough officials to prevent abuses with lorry movements. As an Austrian, he can well understand the fuss recently about foreign vehicles crossing the country and paying nothing for road use, with fuel fiddles to make matters worse, not least from Rumanian drivers.
The ITF, he says, is opposed to sleeper cabs, though, as I understand it, ITF would accept bunks if two drivers are carried sharing 18 hours work — not 2( hours, as with the EEC regula tion.
The ingenuity of lorry driver: in getting round harsh rules well known to ITF officials lik( Johann Hauf. He spoke of t German driver, stopped for t records check, who claimed tha a hitch-hiker he had picked uj was the "second man" who h had helped with driving! He dis arrningly told rue that as a youm man driving a van in Vienna, hi used to "park up" in the aftei noon and go to visit his gir friend. "Of course the tech would prevent that today," h said Tough action by unions, in cluding such devices as secon dary, boycotts, would lead in thi United States to injunctions with heavy damages. Si
althogh ITF can boast that ni
affiliate has ever appealed it vain in a trade union cause fo the Federation's support practi cal, often legal, constraints cat frustrate dramatic interven lions.
The ITF, with a London HC staff of some 35 and regiona officers in Africa, Asia, Japer and South America, is governe( between congresses by t general council and thi
executive board, the lane taking most decisions of a polic, nature with day-to-do,
executive responsibility en trusted to a small internationa management committee elected from the executivi board. These two bodies effort balanced representation ir terms of geographica groupings and transport sec tors.
The specialist sections of ITI undertake research, much o which is published, which brinc out the state of play of particula transport modes in many court tries. A book is in preparation or road transport and if this prove: as detailed as two ITF publica tions on railways, it will prov( very serviceable.
I think ITF deserves to bc better known and it should helf itself by more effective publicip and PR. It is making efforts to d( so within a restricted budge and it deserves to be better sup ported by its affiliated unions.
Whether it can square thi circle of pressing for mor( transport efficiency without th( job losses that may be called fo remains to be seen. It is a built in dilemma not made easier tc resolve by the market force which shape most of ou affairs today.