Over the past month I’ve had the privilege of taking our recent wins and plans for safer and fairer road transport to the broader union movement—not just in Australia, but on the world stage.
The transport reform laws that are soon to take effect are world-leading, and they have come about because workers, employers, industry and unions have worked together. That’s something to celebrate.
At the beginning of June, the whole Australian union movement came together for the first time since 2018 for the ACTU Congress.
Usually Congress is triennial, a chance to regroup as a collective and set our goals for the coming years. The pandemic foiled 2021’s efforts to hold an in-person Congress, and so we’ve had six years to reflect on.
It’s been six massive years in transport.
In those six years we’ve seen the importance of road transport, getting goods across closed borders during the pandemic and navigating floods, fires and other natural disasters.
We’ve seen the upsurge in AI and automation, with challenges but also opportunities for us to enhance safety and worker consultation instead of taking it backwards.
Six years ago, the gig economy was still relatively new. Food delivery apps were only a year or so old. Amazon had only just arrived on Australian shores. Even then, we knew the dangers it would pose to the entire transport industry.
Now, in 2024, we are soon to see new laws come into effect that will allow standards to be set in what has been the Wild West of the gig economy.
This is a huge achievement that’s been won by the whole road transport industry, a world-first approach, and it was a privilege to be able to take that to the Australian union movement.
ACTU Congress also heard from Nabin Adhikari, a gig worker in Canberra who’s been a key voice in the fight to win transport reform. He’s now a delegate and health and safety rep in the food delivery space—for him, minimum standards will mean he can make better, safer choices on the road without the constant fear of being kicked off an app by an algorithm.
For the road transport industry, those gig standards mean drivers and operators won’t be undercut for workers who are exploited and on below minimum wages and conditions.
We also heard from Tony Matthews, an owner driver who’s been fighting for transport reform for 20 years, alongside many other stalwarts of the industry. Though nearing the end of his own career, he’s taken part in countless convoys, lobbying trips to Canberra and other events fighting for the next generation to have a safer and fairer industry.
Soon owner drivers and transport operators will have more protections against unfair contract terminations, and clients at the top of the supply chain will be forced to take responsibility for safety and fairness throughout their supply chain. We have to keep working hard to get those standards in place.
AI and automation is something that’s drawn a lot of attention and will have huge impacts on our industry. AI will leave no job untouched and it calls for a united approach—across the union movement, but equally across industries and across the globe.
We’ve seen from the gig economy that our laws will not keep up with technology if they are not flexible and cannot adapt.
Recently we saw automated truck trials in Victoria announced via an email notification of a lane closure on a toll road. There was zero consultation with the industry or the public. This is an unsustainable approach. We cannot move forward without industry being at the centre of decision-making.
Consultation must be built into the system as technology progresses—consultation with drivers, with transport operators and with the wider industry. We have seen in action the positive results we can achieve when the whole industry is involved.
In fact, the new transport reform laws will be critical in dealing with new technologies and ways of working. The road transport stream of the Fair Work Commission will be able to deal with anything transport-related— that includes automation, transition to net zero, driver surveillance and all sorts of other AI influences we don’t even know about yet. Ultimately the priority should be on jobs, safety and service.
I was also recently in the US for a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) convention and had the chance to talk about gig workers and the upcoming laws here.
The road transport landscape in the US shows us what is coming to Australia if we don’t get good standards in place as quickly as possible.
Truck drivers working off apps and driverless cars are now a matter of course in the States. We’ve seen the lack of standards Amazon Flex drivers in their own cars or vans have faced in Australia. Extend that to trucks with Amazon Relay in the US and you’ve got a dangerous recipe.
That’s why unions around the globe are looking to the TWU for guidance on how to ensure that gig work supports transport standards rather than gutting them.
We’re working with the International Transport Workers’ Federation, other US unions and employers internationally to get those standards to more areas around the globe.
We will soon have a powerful tool ready to use to start reforming road transport for all participants. We are busy working with the industry on what those standards should look like. It’s up to all of us to be involved in that process, front and centre in the decisions that will shape the future of our industry.
Michael Kaine is the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union of Australia. Contact Michael at: NSW Transport Workers Union, Transport House, 188-390 Sussex Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. twu@twu.com.au
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