Watch the replay of the launch event Launch of HesaMag#25: ‘Workers on the route’
From the consumer goods transported by ship or lorry and the meals delivered to us directly by bike, through to the trains and buses we take every day to get to work and the flights we book to go on holiday, it’s clear that transport workers are absolutely essential to our everyday lives. Livia Spera, Acting General Secretary of the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), introduces us to this special report with an exclusive interview in which she explains the environmental and social challenges that the sector is facing. Further on, Romanian drivers express their frustration with working conditions, which, together with the growing labour shortages in this profession, provides yet another argument for combating the overexploitation of eastern European workers. As you can read in the report, labour shortages are in fact afflicting the whole of Europe, with no fewer than 400 000 vacancies on the market for lorry drivers. Wage cuts, appalling conditions and constant separation from their families are no way to attract the younger generations to take up driving jobs.
After just about giving their all at sea, Dutch dockers, for their part, dream of a healthy retirement, which seems increasingly impossible. And in the air, low-cost airlines may have resumed business, but workers’ rights simply can’t get off the ground, while French female workers are campaigning against night work and exposure to cancer risks. Such stories call the meaning of work into question if it seriously affects workers’ health. Finally, in the United Kingdom, new rail reforms are in the offing to right the wrongs of privatisation – could this challenge the long tradition of liberalisation policy in the sector?
Take your seat for this exclusive journey through the day-to-day reality of transport workers across Europe.
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