TISA – A THREAT TO JOBS AND RIGHTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2017 :: RMTnews 28 A new campaign launched by the International Transport Workers' Federation reveals the threat to jobs and workers’ rights posed by the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). The ITF is seeking to enlist the power of trade unions to fight back against the deal, which has been negotiated in virtual secrecy by the European Union and 22 other countries. It aims is to prove the danger to rights, conditions and democracy posed by TiSA in order to provide the information needed to oppose it. All the information will now be findable in one place: www.tisameanstrouble.org. ITF president Paddy Crumlin said that TiSA would supercharge the most powerful companies in the transport industry, giving them preferential treatment. “What’s missing from this equation is any value at all for workers and citizens. “It creates serious barriers for any state wanting to invest in, manage and operate its national infrastructure or – crucially – to defend decent work and decent terms and conditions across transport. “It is our duty as trade unionists to build the knowledge and alliances needed to challenge the secrecy and lack of democracy involved, and develop realistic, worker-centred alternatives,” he said. ITF general secretary Steve Cotton said that despite the wall of secrecy constructed around the TiSA talks, it was well known that the deal represented a threat to hard-won workers’ rights and conditions. “But what isn’t so well known is the way it directly threatens transport workers’ jobs. We aim to put that right. “At the moment negotiations are suspended pending the scheduling of a new round of talks. That gives us a one off window of opportunity for a hard-hitting informational campaign to help challenge this unrepresentative and undemocratic deal.” he said. TISA – A THREAT TO JOBS AND RIGHTS What TiSA aims to do: • enable the global reorganisation of capital through new technologies and digital platforms; • support globally integrated logistics and supply chains; • promote competition and contractualisation in providing services; • remove barriers to cross-border services and offshoring; • prohibit policies and strategies that support the domestic economy and jobs; • remove employment-related obligations on foreign investors; • ensure corporate élites have a right to enter and work in other TiSA countries; • allow foreign firms to use foreign contract workers to deliver services in a TiSA country; • enable employers to bypass collective agreements and de-unionise the workforce; • require pro-business approaches to licensing, qualifications and technical standards, including those that directly affect labour; and • weaken the standard-setting role of specialist international bodies, especially in transportation.