ITF & ETF joint solidarity statement
Transport workers across Europe and around the world have been inspired by the courage and willingness to fight of the Georgian and Uzbekistani truck drivers who have been striking for the past two weeks against inhumane conditions and the failure of Polish transport consortium Lukmaz, Agmaz and Imperia to pay their wages.
From your picket line at the Gräfenhausen car park near Frankfurt, Germany, you have persisted in the face of threats and intimidation from hired thugs sent to break your strike, and vowed to stay camped out until your demands are met.
The world’s transport workers stand in solidarity with you and fully support your just demands: fair pay for the work you do keeping European supply chains moving, respect for your legal rights and to be afforded the dignity, respect and protections that you deserve.
The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and its five million members and the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and its 18 million members are proud to stand with you in calling on Lukmas, Agmaz and Imperia to negotiate with you in good faith and to pay all drivers everything owed them in accordance with the law.
We recognise that all of you who are on strike have been transporting goods for major multinationals including freight forwarders and major manufacturing and retail companies further up the supply chain. These multibillion-dollar companies have a legal responsibility under German law to ensure that human and labour rights are respected throughout their supply chains. Companies that, for too long, have turned a blind eye to the criminal actions of companies like Lukmaz, Agmaz and Imperia, and the labour abuses endemic in European road transport.
Today, we add our voice to yours and call on all companies that contract or subcontract Lukmaz, Agmaz and Imperia to take responsibility for their supply chains. These companies must join us in demanding urgent intervention from the consortium to ensure that all drivers are provided transparent documentation on the pay, conditions, the rights to which they are entitled, and that for the consortium to begin meaningful negotiations with its drivers and their representatives.
This is a strike that has significance well beyond the pay each of you is owed and the exploitation that you have faced. Your brave collective action has exposed for all to see the structural issues in European road transport and the need for major multinationals in the supply chain to listen and work with transport workers to remedy and eradicate these problems.
The ETF and ITF congratulate you for your courage and promise our solidarity until your fight is won.
About the ITF: The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation of transport workers’ unions recognised as the world’s leading transport authority. We fight passionately to improve working lives; connecting trade unions and workers’ networks from 147 countries to secure rights, equality and justice for their members. We are the voice of the almost-20 million women and men who move the world.
About the ETF: The European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) represents over 5 million transport workers from more than 200 transport unions across Europe, from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Central and Eastern Europe, in over 30 countries. The ETF's work is driven by its vision for Fair Transport: quality jobs with safe, reliable transport services for customers.
