ILPC 2027

Following the ILPC CfP, it is outlined that„logistical systems include modes of transportation (…) as well as the coordination of nodes of transfer or storage (…)“. This is a broad definition of logistics' function for the global economy. Increasingly, logistics is also referred to “as a political technology that produces power and subjectivity (…), set[s] technologies and techniques for marshalling the movement of people and things (…), supplies a unique perspective on empirical ground for studying transitions of capital and capitalism “ (https://v.hu-berlin.de/?stat=show&vk_id=5373). So, logistics is a function and system, a technique and method, is it also an industry with its particular regulations, rationales, representatives and rules? Although scholars increasingly use the term logistics worker or logistics industry it is not entirely clear what workers should eventually be subsumed under this label. The range of sub-industries to be covered by logistics is very broad and includes – among others - goods transport workers, warehouse workers, retail workers or postal workers.

On the one hand, the logistics revolution including its technological advancements, e-commerce, the emergence of third party logistics providers and the increasing dominance of logistics in supply chains are cross-cutting issues that impact on employment conditions and industrial relations almost all over the different sub-industries of logistics (i.e. transport, warehousing, retail, postal services, etc.). Also demarcations between sub-industries get increasingly blurred, as „multinational enterprises are increasingly investing in the different transport sectors, and former state-owned companies, such as those in postal services and railways, have expanded strategically into international transport and logistics markets.“ (http://www.etf-europe.org/logistics.cfm) On the other hand, other – and more sub-industry specific – issues such as the liberalization of (different) transport and postal markets and services and legacies of the different sub-industries in terms of industrial relations, (transnational) company structures and expansion as well as workers representation and labour struggles are equally crucial factors for the state of labour issues in logistics.

The contribution will argue for a more precise adoption of the term „logistics workers/labour in logistics“ while at the same time considering common concerns resulting from logistical systems' upheavals. It will take the transport industry and here the comprehensive ETF campaign for the European Citizens’ Initiative “Fair Transport Europe” as an example to point out what a federation of unions, representing more than 3.5 million transport workers, assesses as the most pressing themes and policy challenges for a big share of logistics workers in Europe and what nexuses between transport and logistics were left out of consideration. The campaign ended in September 2016. The initiative aimed at pushing proposals to achieve fair wages and working conditions for those working in the European transport industry. The ETF intended to collect one million signatures from supporters all over Europe, eventually around 200.000 signatures were collected (http://www.etf-europe.org/files/seealsodocs/46457/Report%20from%20the%20GS_n%2014.pdf )

A first impression of the campaigns' documents shows that the ETF refers to logistics as a separate unit (next to railway, road, etc.) and mainly subsumes here parcel delivery and warehousing. This makes of course sense for this campaign and also for ETF's mission to represent all workers employed in the transport sector, and not in other logistics-affine sectors such as retail or postal services. However, one is inclined to ask, if logistics should not be more regarded as a cross-cutting phenomenon. Are not all transport workers also logistics workers?

The analysis reveals commonalities but also major differences in how far European transport workers ranging from truck drivers to couriers to dock workers to train drivers are affected by vertical fragmented business structures, liberalisation, cross-border social dumping, indirect employment, letter box companies, new regulations or the effects of the “logistics revolution” and how these developments impact on their working conditions. Though common problems can be identified, every transport sub-industry has its own reference system, particular terms of regulation and last but not least legacies of unionisation to deal with these problems. The ETF refers to very detailed and peculiar existing regulations for each sub-industry on EU and national level and calls for further top-down administered and policy oriented regulations that shall help to curb increasingly precarious employment. This preciseness and accuracy is impressive, however one easily gets lost into legal details and loses the broad picture and challenges of a supply-chain driven political economy of transport – and logistics.