ITF unions highlight problems in IKEA supply chain

• In Belgium, workers from the BTB spoke to customers at an IKEA store.

• The FNV went to a store in the Netherlands in a truck with a message on it calling on to IKEA ensure local conditions for local work.

• The Transport Workers Union rallied at IKEA, Sydney in solidarity with truck drivers in Europe.

Contractors who deliver goods for IKEA are employing drivers from other countries to work in the supply chain continuously for months at a time. They are paying the drivers lower wages despite their work being usually in higher waged countries, forcing them to live, eat and sleep in their trucks.

Lars Lindgren, president of the Swedish Transport Workers’ Union, said: “The drivers who keep the IKEA economy moving are busier with surviving everyday, rather than driving. IKEA is the economic employer in this chain of exploitation, and it needs to take more action to stop this abuse, it can give these workers a real Christmas present. We are ready to talk to IKEA again to find a solution to this problem.”

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