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ITF general secretary Steve Cotton met with leaders of the Kazakhstan Sectoral Trade Union of Workers of Railway, Road, Air and Water Transport (KazProfTrans) including chair, Orazgali Ahmetbayev in Amalty to start the process of their affiliation to the ITF. The union is part of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Kazakhstan that recently affiliated to the ITUC. The application will now go to the executive board in October for endorsement.
To represent workers from across transport sectors participants of the meeting included chair of the ITF railways section Øystein Aslaksen, vice chair of the ITF seafarers’ section Tomas Abrahamsson, ITF inland transport section assistant secretary Janina Malinovska and representatives from affiliated CIS (commonwealth of independent states) based unions.
ITF executive board member and president of the Trade Union of Railwaymen and Transport Construction Workers of Russia Nikolay Nikiforov acted as chair.
Øystein Aslaksen said: “Trade and investment opportunities in the New Silk Road are immense. China in particular is seizing on the opportunity to reach Central Asian and Middle Eastern markets by using the existing rail network that travels directly through Kazakhstan because it’s so much quicker than the maritime route. This is a link between three continents and 65 countries and at the heart of all of this are transport workers.
“This is a hugely important transport corridor that is strategically important for trade. We need to increase the power of unions, the power of the ITF and ultimately the power of workers here to secure influence and really make a difference.”
Steve Cotton welcomed the first steps towards affiliation saying the integration of KazProfTrans into the ITF would strengthen the federation internationally and have a positive impact for workers along global supply chains that run through the CIS and the surrounding region.
The ITF already has affiliated unions in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan.