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ORGANISINGPRECARIOUS TRANSPORT WORKERS

Organising precarious transport workers2

Growing numbers of informal and precarious workers are in the world’s transport industry.

Many unions organise these workers, and adapt their organising strategies accordingly.

Informal and precarious workers can organise themselves, and unions can be representative of all transport workers.

This booklet can help.

Many of the ideas and experiences used in this handbook are drawn from the ITF’s affiliates themselves, particularly

the ITF’s young members.

This booklet was prepared for the ITF by Dave Spooner, Global Labour Institute (UK), with thanks to Sean Sayer, Annie Hopley and Celia Mather

September 2013

Unless indicated otherwise, all quotes and examples are from the ITF’s survey of informal and precarious work, conducted between September and December 2012.

Our thanks to all that contributed to the survey.

Geneva – Manchester – New York – Moscow

Organising precarious transport workers 3

CONTeNTS

5 HOw DO we ORGANISe?

6 THe RISe OF pReCARIOUS wORK

12 wHAT DO we MeAN bY ‘pReCARIOUS’ wORK

18 IS THIS New?

19 wHY ORGANISe pReCARIOUS wORKeRS?

20 10 KeY qUeSTIONS FOR ORGANISeRS

20 1. Is our union fit for purpose?

22 2. Are we inclusive?

24 3. Who do we organise?

25 4. Are they already organised?

26 5. What form of organisation?

28 6. What are the key demands?

29 7. Who are our allies?

30 8. Who are our opponents?

31 9. Collective bargaining?

33 10. Are we sustainable?

35 FURTHeR ReADING


Read the ITF organisingmanual!The basic principles of organisingworkers are exactly the same,irrespective of their employmentstatus or level of job security. Goodplanning, fit for purpose unionstructures, research, and effectiveorganising techniques are needed tobuild organised power for workers,wherever or whoever they may be.

The ITF has produced the ITForganising manual andaccompanying PowerPoint trainingmodules; essential reading for unionorganisers and activists. Thisprecarious transport workers bookletbuilds on the core methods andtechniques of the ITF organisingmanual with some ideas andexperiences specific to precariousworkers.

The manual is available in Arabic,English, French, German, Portuguese,Spanish and Turkish. Download it, or order printed copies here:www.itfglobal.org/education/organising-manual.cfm

HOw DO we ORGANISe?


Meet ‘Jorma’. Jorma is a train driverin Finland.

He has a reasonably stable job, andhe’s fairly confident that he’llcontinue to earn a decent wage untilhe retires, at which time he’ll receivea pension.

He has access to affordablehealthcare supported by thegovernment. There are lawsprotecting his employment rights.He’s in the Finnish LocomotiveDrivers’ Union, which negotiates his pay and conditions. Jorma is areasonably happy man.

Jorma has what the InternationalLabour Organization calls standardemployment.

But among all the transport workersin the world, Jorma is in a smallminority. An increasing number oftransport workers are facing moreand more precarious and informalwork.

THe RISe OF pReCARIOUS wORK


In civil aviation…Many cabin crews are in a permanentfight against precarious work.“Although we are permanentemployees, we are not guaranteed aset amount of work within a monthand cannot say how much we willearn a year. Our employers candecide that there is not enough workand stop us from working for as longas they see fit. Pay is terrible. Someworkers over 25 are qualifying forgovernment benefits because pay isso low.”

Unite the Union activist, UK

On docks and waterways…“Casualisation is a deliberate strategyto drive down wages and conditionsof employment. You wait on the endof a phone to know whether you havework today or not. It can meanexcessive long hours or not enoughhours of work to make a living. Yourincome is unstable. Worse still, if youtry to improve things at yourworkplace, you can be easilyvictimised.”

Maritime Union of New Zealand


On the high seas…Most seafarers, especially those fromoutside Europe and North America,are on fixed-term contracts withoutthe security of permanentemployment. Even some of thoseworking on vessels covered by ITFagreements are only able to be unionmembers during the period of theircontract.

On railways…Large numbers of jobs are being lostin the rail sector to outsourcing andsubcontracting. In Indonesia, forexample, workers in ticketing,maintenance, track cleaning and therestaurant cars, are now alloutsourced. “It is very confusing, all the different ways that theseemployment contracts areorganised.”

Indonesian Railway workers’ TradeUnion (SpKSA)


In urban transport…“For 20 years minibuses have beenthe main form of transport in theGeorgian capital city of Tbilisi. Theeconomic and political crises in theearly 1990s caused an absolutecollapse of municipal services,including transport. The gap wasfilled by informal transport operatorsusing second-hand minibuses fromTurkey and Germany, and dilapidatedSoviet-produced minibuses from the1980s. Due to widespread corruptionand oligarchic capitalism, transportcontinued to operate largely as partof the informal economy.”

Motor Transport and Motorwayemployees Trade Union, Georgia

In road transport…“Currently the union has amembership of 3,500 payingmembers and an estimated 80,000non–paying members. All ourmembers are informal workersworking in transport companies andothers in the coach-building industry.The potential membership isestimated to be 314,000 members if they can be organised and bebrought on board.”

Kenya Long Distance Truck Driversand Allied workers Union


In fisheries…The seafood processing factory inLampung, Indonesia, owned by theUS-based company Phillips FoodsInc., employs 1,900 workers, of which96 percent are women and 100percent are on temporary contracts.“Many of the workers have workedcontinuously at the seafood factoryfor 10 years or more but were deniedpermanent employment and paiddaily wage rates of just USD3.30. A courageous fight was undertakenagainst the brutal regime of insecurework, and permanent employmentfor 200 union members wassuccessfully won.”

phillips Seafood Indonesia workers’Union (IUF)

In tourism…Throughout the world, workers in the tourist industry face precariouslivelihoods, vulnerable to seasonalfluctuation, economic and politicalcrises, and high levels of informalityand exploitation.


In transport services…Workers in service jobs within thetransport industry are more likely to be precarious, and more likely to be women, working as cleaners,caterers, maintenance workers, or, as pictured here, selling fuel inCambodia.

For women workers…Although women are underrepresented in the transportworkforce as a whole, they are hugelyover represented in precarious andinformal work, and are most likely to be found in low wage, low status,and most insecure forms of transportemployment.

For young workers…Young workers are at the forefront of the new expansion of precariouswork. Many employers deliberatelytarget youth as recruits, into the mostprecarious and informal jobs.


• Precarious work shifts risks andresponsibilities from employer to worker.

• Precarious work breeds uncertaintyand insecurity.

• Permanent jobs are replaced withtime-limited contracts: fixed-term,short-term, temporary, seasonal,day labourer, and casual labour.

• The relationships betweenemployers and workers becomemore and more complicated asenterprises are fragmented anddispersed through subcontractors,franchise holders and labour andtemporary work agencies.

• Employers disguise their employeesas ‘self-employed’ workers. Thereare some major companies withvirtually no officially recognisedemployees at all!

precarious workers are generallypaid less, in many cases 50 percentless, than workers on permanentcontracts. An agency workertypically does exactly the same jobas his or her workmates but withmuch lower remuneration and noaccess to benefits. Because of thelack of job security, competitionagainst other agency workers for

posts and threat of redundancy,precarious workers also work longer,more anti-social hours in order tosecure a decent income.

The wages and working conditionsof precarious workers are of suchpoor quality that simply being inwork is no guarantee of stability or improved living standards. Whilemany people employed throughagencies work in the same job for a long period of time without beingtransferred to a permanentcontract, they nevertheless remaintemporary workers with the ever-present threat of redundancy. Otherprecarious workers are forced tomove between positions regularlyand accept work that is a longdistance from home. Migrants andyoung people suffer greatly from theincrease in this type of work becauseit is the most readily available sourceof income for people with pooreducation, poor training and poorfuture prospects.

There is also a serious impact onhealth as precarious workers are lesslikely to receive adequate trainingand work in the most hazardousjobs. This is combined with animpact on mental health, driven bythe pressure of holding down a job

wHAT DO we MeAN bY‘pReCARIOUS’ wORK?


and accepting poor conditions inorder to survive. The lack of sick payand access to health servicesexacerbates this problem and

Hermes ‘Lifestyle couriers’Hermes is the UK's largest home delivery courier network, delivering 115 million parcel deliveries a year, with a turnover of more than USD400 million.

Yet in 2012, it only employed 1,324 people.

The real workforce are 9,000 self-employed ‘lifestyle couriers’– 60 percentof whom are women.

According to Hermes workers, they earn GBP0.50 (USD0.80) per delivery,and have to cover all their own expenses, including use of their ownvehicles. Generously assuming that they could deliver five parcels an hourin a built-up urban area, they’d be earning GBP2.50 an hour gross. Thecurrent adult minimum wage in the UK is GBP6.19 (USD10.00) per hour.

In Germany, the Hermes Logistik Gruppe (HLG) has become the country'slargest independent home delivery service for online retailers.

Both are part of the Otto Group, originally a German mail-order company,which claims to be the world's largest online retailer of fashion and lifestyle products.

exposes precarious workers to therisk of long term unemploymentshould they fall ill or have anaccident.


Temporary work agencies. Nearly half the respondents to the ITFsurvey reported that there had beenan increase in the numbers oftemporary work agencies in theirworkplace. The large transnationalagencies now offer employers theopportunity to run their enterprisewith a minimum of staff, with agencylabour at the core of operations.

Previously regarded as primarily ameans to fill short-term gaps in theworkforce (seasonal workers, short-term additional staff etc), temporaryagency workers are becoming apermanent feature in manyworkplaces.

“We are attempting to organise thesevulnerable workers, however thetemporary work agencies and thirdparty contractors move them arounda lot, so it becomes increasinglydifficult to form a map of exactlywhere they all are. Over the last threeyears, we have seen a steady increasein the use of agency workers, as wellas self-employed contractors whoforce their employees to work illegallyor face losing their jobs. There is atrend to employ only precariousworkers. I know of sites in Englandwith more than 600 agency workers”.

Noel Coard, Road TransportCommercial Logistics and RetailDistribution National Committee,Unite the Union, UK

“In 2004, the port sector was splitinto two: the traditional dock workand the new activities, so-called‘logistics’, in which employers areauthorised to recruit their workersoutside the traditional pools.Normally this must result in fixed-term contracts, but employers usethis opportunity to introduce amassive number of agency workers,often paid under the normal rates”.

Michel Claes, head of water division,ACV Transcom, belgium

In the worst forms of precariousemployment, there are millions ofinformal workers on the edge ofsurvival, who have little respect givento their rights, and are highlyvulnerable to economic and naturaldisaster.

Informal transport workers generallyhave to survive on very low incomes,often earning less than USD1.00 perday. In addition, most have to workextremely long hours, and theirincome is highly irregular. Drivershave expenses such as vehicle rent,bribes, maintenance, petrol, licencesand fines, which significantly reducetheir daily income. Many transportworkers also face debt problems asthey struggle to pay the rent for theirvehicle and high interest rates tomoney-lenders.


Because the wages are so low,informal transport workers have tocommit to long hours every day inorder to make even a subsistenceincome. The competition for workamong those in public transportmeans it can take a long time to pickup enough lifts to earn the requiredmoney. Drivers of freight will often be away from home for days orweeks at a time.

Police, local authorities, bordercontrols and weigh bridges are allpotential sources of corruption andbribery for the transport worker. Inorder to grant access to certainroutes or overlook safety regulations,

officials often ask for payment fromthe workers and often take asignificant percentage of theirincome. Drivers who work on longdistance freight also face the dangersof hijacking and theft, which make it difficult for them to take breaks or leave their vehicles unattended.

There are significant problems withpoor health and safety standards inthe informal transport sector. Forexample, the condition of thevehicles and their poor maintenanceput workers in danger; unpaved roadsand driving at high speeds makeaccidents common both in city centrepassenger transport and on long

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distance freight. The lack of holidaypay, sick leave, and the long hoursrequired to earn a living mean thatworkers are under a great deal ofstress and exhaustion, whichendangers their own, theirpassengers and fellow road users’safety. The risk of contractingHIV/AIDS is also high for long distancedrivers who spend a long time awayfrom their families.

By virtue of being informal, thesetransport workers are highly unlikelyto have access to social protection.Pensions, sick pay, holiday pay andmaternity cover are not available in the informal economy leavingworkers extremely vulnerable toshock factors. In many developingcountries where the informaleconomy is at its strongest, there isneither state protection nor anyemployment benefits.

This is our battleground. Employers, supported by governmentneoliberal policies, are constantlypushing ‘labour flexibility’, attemptingto shift labour towards precariousjobs. Unions are in a constantstruggle to resist and to push back.The financial crises of recent yearshave intensified the conflict: standardemployment is shrinking, theinformal economy is expanding, andeveryone is under increasing pressuretowards ever-more precarious work,especially young and womenworkers.


How many precarious transport workers are there?No one really knows precisely, governments rarely collect the information.Evidence suggests that informal workers form the majority of all transportworkers in the world.

The ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) suggests that 50percent of the world’s labour force, over 1.5 billion workers, are invulnerable employment.

CIETT (International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies), theemployers’ organisation representing temporary work agencies, estimatedin 2009 that there were 72,000 private employment agencies worldwide,with 9 million workers, and a combined turnover of EUR203 billion.

CIETT also calculated that 80 percent of corporations used agency labour,and that 60 percent of agency workers are under 30 years old. Japanaccounts for 24 percent of the global market with more than 20,000employment agencies.

In a survey of affiliates undertaken by the ITF in 2012, 81 percent ofrespondents reported substantial numbers of precarious workers in theirworkplaces, with 62 percent reporting an increase. All unions in developingcountries reported precarious workers in the workplace, in increasingnumbers.

74 percent of all unions and 100 percent of unions in developing countriesreported an increase in the numbers of informal transport workers.


No. Not so long ago all employmentwas precarious and informal. It wasonly through the strength of tradeunionism in the 20th century thatsome workers, mostly men, mostly in industrialised countries, began towin secure, long-term jobs with socialprotection and employment rightsprotected by law.

Some believed that withindustrialisation, more and moreworkers would enjoy these benefitsof good organisation, built bygenerations of trade unionists, andscenes like the one pictured abovewould simply disappear over time.

The opposite is true. Unless weorganise, transport workers acrossthe world will be pushed back intoworsening conditions of precariousand informal employment.

IS THIS New?

Irish dockworkers queue up for a day’s work, 1901


quite simply, because we have littlechoice.

While we can do our best to resist theerosion of decent work, we will neverwin without organising thosetransport workers who are already inprecarious and informal work.

If we fail to organise, unions willsimply become more and moremarginal, powerless, and irrelevant tothe working lives of the vast majorityof transport workers.

wHY ORGANISe pReCARIOUSwORKeRS?

“We all have a duty to promote thelives of precarious workers. We needto learn what unions have done toassist them, fully know and learnwhat gains have been achievedthrough negotiations on their behalf,and what measures unions have putin place to ensure that precariousworkers are included.”

Martin Kapombeza, organiser,Transport and General workersUnion, Malawi


1. Is our union fit for purpose?

Before we start to organise, we haveto make sure that our union hasagreed policies, services and aconstitutional framework(membership rules, structures,procedures etc), which meet theneeds of precarious workers, andenable them to be fully activemembers.

It may require changes to the way theunion works and the allocation ofresources.

For some activists, it might require adifferent way of thinking about whata trade union is, and who a union isfor. Some may be uneasy or evenhostile about the idea, as thesecomments demonstrate:

“There are still many transportworkers permanently employed bylarge companies who are not yetunion members. We should organisethem first, before consideringinformal workers.”

“These agency workers are chasingour jobs. We should simply drive outthe agencies entirely, before theydrive us out and replace us withcheap labour. We should opposethem, not organise them.”

“These ‘workers’ are not reallyworkers at all. They’re responsible for all the traffic jams, the pollution,the street crime. They just createtrouble, and we don’t want them inour union.”

“Informal workers simply cannotafford, or are not willing to pay,proper union dues. This means thateither those of us with ‘proper jobs’will have to subsidise them, or theunion will go bankrupt.”

“We’re a union, not a welfare society.These self-employed people aresimply looking for opportunities tomake money, get cheap loans orexpand their business.”

“Some of these workers are barelyliterate and have no knowledge of the trade union movement. It’s OK to recruit them, but they should onlybe allowed to stand for election asleaders when they’ve proved theirabilities.”

10 KeY qUeSTIONS FOR ORGANISeRS


These are not trivial concerns. If theunion activists and leaders have nothad a chance to seriously discussthese issues, and reach commonagreement, the organising initiativewill be halfhearted at best. At worst,it could lead to serious splits anddivisions later on.

If a serious organising initiativeamong precarious workers raisesquestions of major structural changewithin the union, we have to payclose attention to democraticprocesses of decision making,ensuring that everyone has had theopportunity to contribute and beheard. The most effective way ofdoing this is through education andopen discussion.

engage the leadership, activists andmembers in education anddiscussion about the changingnature of the transport industry, thegrowth of precarious and informalwork, and the future compositionand purpose of transport unions.

Sadly, some divisions are caused bylong-standing union leaders whoresist the large-scale recruitment and organisation of precarious andinformal workers out of fear that theymay lose their positions. It is ofcourse inescapable that if a unionorganises a large new group ofworkers, they have every right tostand for election and challengethose holding power.

Ask what will the union look like inten years if we do not successfullyorganise and represent precariousand informal workers in ourcountry?

Bring some of the informal orprecarious workers themselves intothe discussion. Invite them to speakat meetings, attend your trainingcourses, write articles for yournewsletters.


2. Are we inclusive? Once the union has agreed policies to organise precarious and informalworkers, ask what needs to be doneto ensure that they can join theunion, and can take a full part in thedemocratic structures and decisionmaking.

Review the constitution, rules andstructures of the union. Does theunion constitution enable you torecruit transport workers, irrespectiveof their employment status?

Some union constitutions may onlyadmit members who have anidentifiable employer, or excludetemporary workers, agency workers,self-employed workers or others.

Some union structures assume thatworkers have a stable employer and aregular workplace – union branchesorganised around single bargainingunits, for example, that may excludeprecarious workers.

What would your structures andrulebook look like if the union was tobe fully inclusive of informal andprecarious workers? Some ITFaffiliates already have a constitutionthat explicitly enables them to recruitand support precarious and informalworkers into the union, and to ensurethat they are properly represented inthe governing bodies and leadership.

In some countries, labour laws mayseek to prevent union organisation of informal or precarious workers.

• What laws, regulations and policiesrelate to this group of workers?

• Are there national labour laws thatcover these workers?

• Are there laws that prevent themformally joining a union orregistering a union?

• Are there licensing authoritiesinvolved? Who are they?

• If the workplace is a public space,what laws and regulations are inforce? Who determines them? Who enforces them?


If the law prevents unionmembership for informal orprecarious workers, challenge thelaw. banning union membership onthe basis of employmentrelationships is a clear breach of thefundamental right of freedom ofassociation.

Meanwhile, where direct unionmembership is not appropriate orforbidden under labour law, we needclear and agreed policies to work inalliance with groups of informal andprecarious workers who may beorganised outside conventional unionstructures.

There are numerous examples ofinformal workers’ organisations thatfunction as if they were a tradeunion, but are not registered orrecognised as such, includinginformal associations, self-helpgroups, co-operatives, and NGOs(non-governmental organisations).

Remember that it’s a two-waystreet. The workers themselves mayfeel that trade unions are notappropriate for them. Some mayeven have bad experience of tradeunion membership in previousemployment as these commentsillustrate:

“Trade unions have never doneanything for us. They’re onlyinterested in protecting their well-paid jobs.”

“I haven’t got the money or time to be involved in a trade union. I’mworking all the time. When do I havethe time to go to the union office, orattend a meeting?”

“Most of us workers here are young.Unions are just old men in suits. What can they offer us?”

“These unions are all involved inpolitics. They’re more interested infancy dinners with political leadersthan talking to us.”


3. who do we organise?The question is a little more complexthan may be first thought.

Does a lorry driver working for atemporary work agency encourageother non-transport temporaryworkers to join? Should a union forinformal bus drivers also include theworkers running the food stallsaround the bus station? Should aunion of motorcycle taxi driversrecruit roadside fuel sellers? Shouldthe McDonald’s workers at a railwaystation franchise be in the sameunion as the train drivers? Should aunion of taxi drivers also includethose who might own two or threetaxis? Or 20 taxis?

when does a worker become anemployer? The distinctions between‘workers’, ‘entrepreneurs’ and‘employers’ can become blurred inthe informal economy.

Governments and employers’organisations often promote informalworkers as entrepreneurs, andencourage class allegiance withemployers, not the labourmovement.

Very large numbers of informal andprecarious transport operators are‘own-account’ or self-employedworkers, leasing or buying their ownvehicles, and operating as their ownmicro business. Inevitably, somemanage to accumulate or borrowsufficient money to have more thanone vehicle, and may start to hireother workers as operators. Theybecome employers.

Should they be in the union or in anemployers’ association? At whatpoint should they no longer be seenas having the same interests as aworker? When a truck driver ownstwo lorries? When a bicycle-rickshawdriver runs a fleet of 10 vehicles?

Do they all see themselves as‘workers’? Are there tensionsbetween workers and ‘microemployers’? Can these tensions be resolved within the union?


4. Are they alreadyorganised?

Stupid question? The objective is tobuild a strong inclusive trade unionorganisation for precarious andinformal transport workers. Butmaybe they are already organised!

The informal workplace, whether on the street, the areas surroundingstations, airports, dock gates, orother busy transport hubs, may atfirst glance seem chaotic anddisorganised. But a closer look willalmost certainly reveal a high level of organisation, perhaps built up overmany years.

Informal transport workers havenumerous ways in which they areorganised, whether through simplearrangements for orderly queues forpassengers, established ‘rules’ ontouting for business, agreed pointsfor pickup and set down of goods orpassengers, etc. Sometimes these areorganised through informalassociations, self-help groups or co-operatives, organically developed bythe workers themselves. But thereare also numerous examples ofinformal organisation throughcriminal gangs, corrupt public officialsand police, and protection racketeers.

There may also be a history of otherorganisations attempting to organisethe transport workers, or that alreadydo so; other unions, NGOs,community groups, religiousorganisations etc.

It is also entirely possible that theworkers are already members of atrade union, although perhaps neverregistered, never formally recognised,or ‘disguised’ as another form oforganisation.

It is essential to get anunderstanding of organisation at thestreet level. what kinds oforganisations are there? Have theworkers taken up issues or takenaction before? what happened? was it a positive experience? Arethere already some workers’ leaderscommitted to organising onprinciples of democracy andsolidarity?


5. what form oforganisation?

Precarious workers are notnecessarily willing or able to join orcreate formally-constituted tradeunion organisations. Organisers areoften faced with choices betweendifferent forms of organisation:

Should we recruit informal andprecarious workers directly into our union?

Should we strengthen an existingworkers’ organisation of informaland precarious workers?

Should we be supporting thedevelopment of a new organisation?

If creating a new organisation, what is the most appropriate:

• Formally registered trade union?

• Trade union ‘disguised’ as avoluntary association?

• Co-operative?

• Community-based organisation?

• An informal group, then formalisedas capacity and membershipdevelops?

For example, the National TransportWorkers’ Federation in Burundi(Federation Nationale des Travailleursdes Transports – FNTT), includes bothunions and associations, covering

formal and informal workers. FNTTrecognised that informal workers werenot organised and had many problems.

“We started to make contact withthem, but it was not easy becausethey didn’t have any representatives.Even those who had formedassociations were regularly harassedby the administration or the police. Sothe FNTT executive committee wentto different transport services, suchas trucks, buses, taxis, motorcyclesand bicycles, and explained to themthe difference between an associationand trade union, how they operate,and how to establish either form oforganisation.”

“They were positively interested andstarted to create associations such asthe Truckers’ Association, Truckers’Association of Kayanza, Bus Drivers’Association, Private Drivers’Association, Taxi Drivers’ Associationand Lorry Drivers’ Association. Therewas also a Motorcycle Taxi Drivers’Association, Bicycle Taxi Drivers’Association and many others in theprovinces. All these affiliated to theFNTT.”

“The organisation of informal workershas been a great success for FNTT, asmany informal workers have formedunions, and now know how to asserttheir rights.”

Deogratias birihanyuma, FNTT,burundi


Organising as a co-operative: motorcycle taxi drivers inRwanda The Rwandan trade union movement set about re-building in 1995, afterthe genocide. The ILO SYNDICOOP project worked with Assetamorwa(Association de l'Espérance des Taxis Motos au Rwanda), the organisation of motorcycle taxi drivers. Assetamorwa is a living example of how co-operatives and trade union ideas can combine together to help toorganise transport workers in the informal economy.

Members faced major problems of extortionate rental fees for theirvehicles. After paying the owner, the petrol, and buying food, drivers werebringing home less than USD1 per day, whereas those that owned theirown bikes were able to bring home two or three times that amount. They also faced major problems of crime, health effects of pollution, and restrictive regulations from the authorities.

The drivers recognised that it would be in their interest to combinetogether as a trade union. Assetamorwa, with 2,500 members, is now wellorganised and many of these problems have been overcome. Limits to theworking day have been agreed, and good progress is being made onimproving livelihoods through co-operation. Assetamorwa now uses thetontine system, forming small well-organised groups (there are currently18) and collecting small amounts of money from individuals. ‘Tontine’ (or money from the fund) is used to purchase a motorbike. Money is thengiven to each of the group in rotation.

Assetamorwa also trains young drivers, runs a garage and spare parts depotand negotiates with the traffic police. Members are encouraged toparticipate in savings and credit co-operatives and this enables them toaccess long- and short-term loans as a proportion of the shares they own.Assetamorwa has been able to buy 57 motorcycles for members to use.

“Thanks to Assetamorwa, I have the chance to buy my own bike. Wesupport each other and the union negotiates with the traffic police. Allmotorcycle taxi drivers should join.”

Joseph, a member of Assetamorwa(With thanks to Stirling Smith, Co-operative College)


6. what are the keydemands?

The only reliable way to determinethe key demands of precariousworkers is to listen. The objective isto build union power based on activeparticipation of union members. Thedemands have to come from themembers themselves.

However, from examples provided by ITF affiliates and allies, there aresome key general demands to befound worldwide.

All workers • Freedom of association• Recognition and collective

bargaining rights

Casual workers • Closing the gap between casual and

permanent workers• Permanent status• Permanent part-time status for

seasonal workers• Limits on hiring precarious workers• The right to negotiate hiring• Challenging discrimination and

exclusion• The right of unions to represent

precarious workers• The right to regular employment • Stopping outsourcing

Agency workers• Outlaw agency labour• The right to join the same union as

directly employed workers, and bein the same bargaining unit

Self-employed workers• Ban ‘disguised’ employment• Inclusion in urban and

environmental planning policy-making

• Affordable social protection• Protection from organised crime• End police harassment and

corruption


seller on the street today might be arickshaw operator tomorrow. Manymay not define themselves as‘transport workers’, but simply asmaking a living on the streets as bestthey can.

Do we work with NGOs There are likely to be a range ofsupportive NGOs, developmentagencies, pro-union researchers,community organisations and others,who will be willing to work with theunion. Some may wish to developlong-term alliances around commoncampaigns.

The ‘informal economy’ has becomea major focus for developmentagencies and NGOs. Theseorganisations share a broad commonagenda of seeking to improve thelivelihoods of informal economyworkers.

However, there are widely differingapproaches, philosophies andstrategies underpinning theiractivities. These range from activesupport for democratic workers’organisations, including unions,based on a workers’ rights model; to the encouragement ofentrepreneurship, micro financedevelopment etc, based on abusiness model of development,possibly hostile to trade unionorganisation.

7. who are our allies?We are unlikely to be alone inwanting to empower informal andprecarious transport workers. It isimportant to assess who may bewilling to help build a strong andinclusive transport union.

It is important to get the support oforganised workers in the ‘formal’transport economy, and in the supplychains dependant on informal and/orprecarious transport workers. Thismay require some investment of timeand energy, particularly where theworkers may feel threatened orundermined by the growth ofprecarious and informal workers intheir sector or workplace.

It is sometimes just as important togain the support of organisedinformal and precarious workers inother sectors that often share thesame workplace (bus stations,markets, busy intersections etc) ormay depend on transport workers fortheir own livelihoods, eg streetvendors, market traders, waste-recyclers, tourism and sex workers,and others.

It is important to recognise that manyinformal or precarious transportworkers may have more than one job,or may frequently change jobs. Amarket stallholder by day might be ataxi driver by night. A lottery ticket


In some cases, NGOs receive moneyfrom government and foundationsetc to work with informal workers.This means their livelihoods dependon exclusive contact with ‘their’group of workers. Some may even be‘disguised’ employers. They may seedemocratic workers’ organisations asa direct competitive threat. Thereforecaution is required when dealing withsome NGOs. On the other hand, goodlocal NGOs may have the resources,skills and experience to really help.

8. who are our opponents?Who has something to lose? Therewill inevitably be organisations andindividuals who will seek to stop theorganisation of a strong union forinformal transport workers:

powerful corporations who wouldlike to see informal transportoperators cleared off the streets;urban property developers and largeprivate sector transport companies.

Corrupt politicians, public servantsand police who depend on bribesand kick-backs from informaltransport operators.

Criminal gangs running protectionand extortion rackets

‘Community leaders’ and anti-unionNGOs dependant on grants toprovide services to poor informaltraders, whose livelihoods arethreatened when the workersorganise themselves.


9. Collective bargaining? Collective bargaining is at the heart ofall trade unionism. But who are thebargaining counterparts when thereis no employer?

Collective bargaining is not restrictedto workers in a clear employmentrelationship. Informal and precariousworkers all face a range oforganisations and institutions whohave a direct and sometimesdramatic impact on their livelihoods,conditions and rights. These are thebargaining counterparts. Strongunion organisation is capable ofencouraging or forcing theseorganisations to accept theirresponsibilities for the workers,recognising the union as thelegitimate bargaining representativeof the workers, and enteringmeaningful negotiations to improvetheir working lives.

The most important bargainingcounterparts will vary considerably,depending on location, sector,political context etc, but the mostcommon will include:

National and local governments –including departments responsiblefor transport infrastructure, urbanplanning, vehicle registration andtraffic regulation, environmentalprotection and sustainability, tourismand economic development.

police – both national and local,particularly traffic police and borderpolice.

Infrastructure operating companies –(whether state-owned or privatelyowned), including bus stations,airports, ports, and railway stations.

Anti-corruption agencies – specialistgovernment departments,international agencies (Organisationfor Economic Co-operation etc)

Suppliers and vendors – essential forinformal transport operators,including fuel-sellers and vehicleleasing companies

Social protection agencies –government departments,international development agencies,major NGOs. Access to social securityand healthcare are major prioritiesfor informal and precarious workers.

banks – debt and access to affordablecredit is a major problem for informaland precarious workers.

Once the appropriate bargainingcounterparts are identified, theprinciples for collective bargaining forprecarious or informal workers are nodifferent from those used throughoutthe trade union movement –establishing a negotiating forum,gaining recognition from thebargaining counterpart, andestablishing procedural agreements.


“FNTT established a nationalnegotiation committee for unions andassociations of informal workers.Each province has a committee of fiveelected members, from whichrepresentatives form the nationalcommittee. All the provincialcommittees received training andsupport from FNTT in techniquesaround collective bargaining andnegotiation, how to identify theworkers’ problems and findappropriate solutions. If problemscannot be solved at the provinciallevel, they can turn to the nationalcommittee for help and, if need be,negotiation with national authorities.

“For example, the bicycle taxi union(SYPROTAVEBU), helped by FNTT, was able to negotiate an agreementwith the mayor of the capital cityBujumbura, that enabled them towork freely in the city, and bicycletaxis and motorcycle taxis wereintegrated into the Burundi trafficcode.“

Deogratias birihanyuma, FNTT,burundi


10. Are we sustainable? building a democratic culture oforganisationBuilding a strong democratic tradeunion culture requires considerabletime and effort, involving investmentin long-term workers’ education formembers, grass-roots activists andunion leadership.

Some informal and precarious workersmay have been active in trade unionsin previous working experience in amore ‘formal’ organised workplace.They may have a good understandingof the principles and values of thelabour movement which will beinvaluable to building the union forinformal workers.

But for others, prior experience ofunions may not have been positive.Perhaps they’ve believed that unionshave shown no interest in informalworkers, or have even been hostile ordiscriminatory towards them.Perhaps they believe that the unionsdid nothing to help them when theyfaced redundancy or unfair treatmentin the past.

It may be necessary to address someof the most elementary of tradeunion principles; that workers’ rightsand livelihoods are best advancedthrough collective action, ratherthan through individual struggle andcompetition between workers.

Transparency and accountabilityEnsuring a sense of identity and self-determination for informal andprecarious workers within largerbroad trade union organisations,within which they may be a minority.

Basic skills in democratic organisation(chairing, recording decisions,keeping accounts, reporting backfrom negotiations etc), cannotnecessarily be taken for granted.

The importance of membershipdues! Many informal transport workersearn little, earn erratically, and arevulnerable to external economicshocks. This is often the reason whysome unions do not attempt tocollect membership fees from theworkers, and why some federationsdo not demand membership feesfrom their affiliated organisations.These organisations are whollydependent on financial support fromdonor organisations.

Most unions recognise thatmembership dues are essential, evenif they are small. The regular collectionof fees and accounting for income andexpenditure helps bind togethermembers and leaders, and helps holdthe leadership to account. If sufficientattention is given to the collection ofmembership dues, even though thetotal amounts may be relatively small,it may at least enable the organisation


to function during periods of scarceexternal funding – albeit perhapswithout paid staff or offices.

Dangers of external fundingMany organisations are destroyed by inappropriate levels andconditions of external funding.

In many places, informal transportworkers are permanently on the edgeof destitution. They are forced tosurvive on a day-to-day basis, and arevery vulnerable to economic crises,hikes in fuel prices, natural disastersetc, or personal shocks such asaccidents, mechanical breakdowns,or police harassment.

Access to even relatively smallamounts of money can become lifechanging. A frequent first response tothe idea of joining a union can be“what do I get in return?”, oftenmeaning what are the immediatefinancial gains?

Given that the overwhelming majorityof informal workers are poor, it isextremely difficult to run anorganisation on membership dues andself-generated income alone. Some ofthe most basic organisational facilitiesavailable to unions and associations ofbetter paid workers, such as offices,computers, and telephones (let alonepaid staff), are difficult to afford unlessthe organisation has access to externalfinances.

Yet there have been more workers’organisations destroyed by moneythan those which have been assisted.Even modest amounts of externalfunding can create competition anddivision between leaders, andstruggles for control over resources.Money attracts the attention ofothers, perhaps less honest andscrupulous, individuals andorganisations. It can create anenormous strain on the electedleadership to ensure that the moneyis well managed and is used for thepurposes for which it was given.

External finance can also underminethe independence of theorganisation. As soon as externalsupport has enabled the organisationto hire staff, rent offices, undertakeprofessional education and organisingprogrammes and so on, there ispressure for that money to continue.It is hard to return to a more modestoperation with the voluntary effort ofthe members and unpaid electedleaders when money dries up.

When sources of grant assistance arecut, and the contractual conditionsbecome more strenuous, there is adanger that policies and programmesof the union are less in response tothe democratically expressed needsof the members, and more inresponse to donor organisations.


FURTHeR ReADINGDave Spooner, Precarious labour and decent work in the transport industry:ITF baseline study report, ITF, 2013.

ILO-ACTRAV, From precarious work to decent work. Policies and regulations to combat precarious employment, ILO, 2011.www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---actrav/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_164286.pdf

Chris Bonner & Dave Spooner, The only school we have: learning fromorganizing experiences across the informal economy, WIEGO 2012.www.inclusivecities.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Bonner-Spooner_The_Only_School_We_Have.pdf

Chris Bonner, Organising in the informal economy: resource books fororganisers, StreetNet International & WIEGO:www.inclusivecities.org/organizing/building-organizations

Organising precarious transport workersGrowing numbers of informal and precarious workers are in the world’stransport industry.

Many unions organise these workers, and adapt their organising strategiesaccordingly.

Informal and precarious workers can organise themselves, and unions can berepresentative of all transport workers.

This booklet can help.

International Transport workers’ Federation49-60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DR, UK

Tel: +44 (0)20 7403 2733 Fax:+44 (0)20 7357 7871

email: [email protected]

www.itfglobal.org/youngworkers

www.facebook.com/ITFglobal

@itfglobalunion

Available in Arabic, English,French,German and Spanish:

www.itfglobal.org/education/precarious.cfm

Available in:Arabic, English,French, German,Portuguese,Spanish andTurkish:

www.itfglobal.org/education/organising-manual.cfm

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