International

Employment and Social Affairs Minister Lodewijk Asscher may have put the exploitation of workers from other member states employed in the Netherlands on the agenda in Brussels, but it hasn’t made much of an impact. This week I heard that European Commissioner Siim Kallas will not be supporting our call for concrete proposals to combat exploitation in road transport. At best he will produce a report on the present situation. Kallas isn’t ignoring only our proposals, but Asscher’s ideas too. On 10th February the Dutch truck drivers’ organisation ‘Chauffeurstoekomst (Samen Sterk)’ [Drivers’ Future (Strong Together)] and German counterparts Action in Transport in Amersfoort will hold a common demonstration in Amersfoort, Netherlands, and Paul Ulenbelt, SP spokesman employment in the Dutch national parliament, will be there, as will I. In my view this will be the first action of many, ending up at the European Commission’s offices in Brussels.

Before the summer recess I joined a group of like-minded MEPs in handing over a list of suggestions to Commissioner Kallas. He said then that he would set to work on an action plan with legislative and other proposals aimed at bringing exploitation in road transport to an end. The drivers, who had previously taken part en masse in an SP enquiry into the matter, saw this as hopeful. Now it turns out that we were simply being fobbed off.

If Kallas is indeed going to produce nothing more than a report on the current situation, then we’re back to where we were more than half a year ago. But I don’t have much faith even in this, expecting instead to see Kallas’s report demonstrating that there’s no problem with exploitation in road transport, and for this to be a step towards proposals to liberalise the sector. Every driver in the Netherlands can, however, show photos and give eye-witness reports that demonstrate that eastern European truck drivers not only dodge safety regulations, but are forced furthermore to work in the most inhuman conditions, sleeping in containers and cooking on a camping stove, often right next to a tanker full of inflammable material.

You might well ask what Asscher actually did in Brussels, when he wanted to put the exploitation of workers on the agenda. The Commission didn’t in any case seem to be all that impressed with his plans. We know the Commission, of course. They’re quick enough to jump to it when it comes to putting forward neoliberal proposals, but when it concerns the protection of workers, they won’t give it houseroom. All the more reason to give the right of initiative to member states’ ministers and the European Parliament, which would have meant that we would have long had proposals to combat exploitation in road freight transport.

For the time being, however, we are stuck with Kallas and his colleagues. Following up on the February 10th action in Amersfoort further actions will be needed in the Netherlands, but also in Brussels. The drivers told me recently that they feel like bringing the whole of the ‘European District’ in Brussels to a halt. That may indeed be the only way to get Kallas to move into action. The SP will be there. We aren’t going to leave our truck drivers out in the cold!