GRÄFENHAUSEN/BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – The strike by Eastern European truck drivers, who are demanding outstanding wages from their Polish employer, continued on Tuesday at the Gräfenhausen motorway service station in southern Hesse. According to trade unionists, there are now 63 trucks at the service area on the A5. The drivers, most of whom come from Georgia and Uzbekistan, say they have been waiting for their money for up to two months. They are supported by the Fair Mobility Advisory Network and German trade unionists.
Pascal Meiser, trade union policy spokesman for the left in the Bundestag, called on Tuesday for more controls to enforce the minimum wage in cross-border goods transport and offensive support for foreign drivers. “In the cross-border transport of goods, the floodgates continue to be wide open to the exploitation of motorists,” he said.
The low level of controls when it comes to enforcing the minimum wage and other occupational health and safety regulations and the lack of a link to the controls of the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility are “a sign of inadequacy”. At the same time, the federal government has a duty to significantly expand the powers of the Federal Office for Logistics and Mobility so that at least blatant cases of labor exploitation can finally be more easily punished.
“We have long criticized the sometimes unacceptable working conditions at Eastern European freight forwarders and transport companies, many of which are active in the Western European transport market with dumping prices,” said Martin Bulheller, spokesman for the Federal Association of Road Haulage, Logistics and Disposal (BGL), on Tuesday. “German transport companies have been suffering from a driver shortage that has been increasing for years, so that the supply of the population and the economy is in question.” Many of the member companies would “rather hire Georgian or Uzbek truck drivers today than tomorrow on German terms,” but they shouldn’t.
As nationals of so-called third countries, Georgians and Uzbeks in the EU do not have automatic work permits. According to union information, the drivers are probably bogus self-employed, although they only drove for the Polish forwarding company.
The Hessian State Advisory Board for Foreigners showed solidarity with the strikers on Tuesday. “Exploitation and discrimination in precarious work is not unique and not limited to individual countries,” said Vice-Chairwoman Fatma Nur Kizilok in a statement. “Now is the time to implement effective protection mechanisms so that exploitation and disenfranchisement in the workplace consistently leads to reporting.”/czy/DP/jha