At the same time, XPO workers from the USA and Spain will address shareholders at the company’s European annual general meeting (AGM) in Lyon, France to tell their stories of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and even death in the workplace.
Furthermore, the workers will present the AGM with a report detailing systematic gender discrimination at XPO in Spain. ‘Women’s Wellbeing At XPO’ describes gender bias at one XPO warehouse that handles an Amazon contract, and the devastating effect it has on the women workers there. Included in the report is evidence that women are paid less, they are not given the promotion opportunities of men and their skills and experience are ignored.
María Gema Mejia Ramos is a worker at the XPO Alovera II site and will speak at the AGM: “I operate the machines, remove pallets and count merchandise, but XPO doesn't pay me for that category of work. I have the training, but the company doesn't recognise it.
“There are several women including me, who use the forklift … we have equal jobs and the same conditions of work, comparable and equal. The men are simply making more money than the women”
ITF general secretary Stephen Cotton said: “It is clear that the problems at XPO are not isolated. Everywhere the company operates it brings with it a culture of discrimination against women. Along with this we already know about unsafe working practices and anti-union behaviour at XPO.
“It is now facing a global response from ITF unions and it is time that XPO management sat down with the ITF and its affiliates to start cleaning up its pernicious culture.”
The XPO AGM is 1000-1100, Friday 15 June, at the Lyon Marriott Hotel Cité Internationale, 70 Quai Charles de Gaulle, 69006 Lyon. Immediately after speaking at the AGM the XPO workers will come out and hold a media conference at the Marriott hotel.
During the AGM, French XPO workers will hold a demonstration outside the hotel.
Both events will be broadcast live at Facebook.com/itfglobal.
END
The ITF report ‘Women’s Wellbeing At XPO’ will be released the morning of the AGM. For more information and for interviews with workers and union activists at the AGM contact:
Bryn Watkins, European Transport Workers’ Federation.
b.watkins@etf-europe.org
+32 470 93 05 90
Andy Khan-Gordon, International Transport Workers’ Federation
khan-gordon_andy@itf.org.uk
+44 (0)7711 356 964
Background
XPO Logistics Europe employees 52,000 people, with a total revenue of EUR5.7bn.
The Guardian has reported on the multiple accusations of sexual harassment faced by XPO in the USA: https://goo.gl/Ky55hD
American media has reported on the accusations of sexual harassment and dangerous working conditions at XPO. For example, see this television report: https://goo.gl/v7Hvjx
Information on the ITF’s XPO global leadership group: https://goo.gl/tePRXG
Information on the Teamsters XPO campaign in the USA: https://goo.gl/26HK8o
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) creates borderless solidarity among transport workers in every corner of the globe. We support 670 affiliate trade unions in 140 countries, representing 19.7 million workers.
The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) embraces transport trade unions from the European Union, the European Economic Area and Central and Eastern European countries. The ETF represents more than five million transport workers from more than 230 transport unions and 42 European countries
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