All eyes are on the Kuwait-based multinational firm Agility Logistics over its treatment of road transport workers in Kenya, the International Transport Workers’ Federation said today at a press conference in Mombasa.

ITF international and regional representatives won government commitments to address national transport unions’ concerns during a meeting on 24 March with Burkina Faso’s prime minister and minister for infrastructure and transport.

An outcry raised by a coalition of trade unions and civil society groups has led UN Women to disassociate itself from a partnership with ‘ride booking’ app provider Uber just over a week after its announcement. The unions and NGOs had acted speedily to persuade the United Nations organisation to reconsider a strategic partnership with the company that would supposedly create ‘a million’ jobs for women drivers.

The reach and power of ITF road transport and railway unions were on show this week as representatives from 50 unions in 30 countries met in London for steering committee meetings.

Global road transport unions meeting in London today welcomed the peaceful return to work of Kenyan drivers and reinforced the call for union rights at Kuwait-based company Agility logistics.

The ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) is warning of an imminent crisis as massed, armed Kenyan riot police make ready to attack truck drivers peacefully gathered near the towns of Kanaan and Mai Mahiu.

The ITF is supporting some 80 truck drivers who have parked their trucks in the town of Voi, Kenya and are refusing to move until Agility Logistics gives them union recognition and ends what they say are enforced work shifts of up to 24 hours.

The ITF was told on 10 March that charges against all three Cameroon union leaders arrested in January have been dropped.

Sharing of campaign ideas, the importance of tactics and having a strong strategy, new ways to organise youth committees, how to organise apathetic workers – just some of the things previous ITF summer school participants have taken away from the event.

Twenty-five shop stewards participated in training to build the organising capacity of Kenyan long-distance truck drivers, which was organised by the ITF and its affiliates the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV) and the Kenya Long Distance Truck Drivers Union (KLDTDU).

Worldwide action organised by the ITF and Public Services International (PSI), in concert with other global unions, the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) and trade unions worldwide, has helped thwart an attempt to remove the right to strike at the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Following a worldwide trade union campaign to defend it, the right to strike has been re-affirmed at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva.