News

The UNI backed project to organise DHL’s Asia hub in Hong Kong is building up momentum following a meeting with top management that opened a continuing dialogue

PEG - the Post and Express Workers General Union - was launched with the help of ver.di Germany and the Hong Kong postal union to help organise 3,000 DHL workers in Hong Kong.

Ver.di has already organised workers at DHL’s new European hub in Leipzig and US unions are currently organising workers in the US hub at Wilmington, Ohio. DHL is owned by Deutsche Post World Net and operates in more than 200 countries.

UNI Hong Kong’s Michael Siu is to be the channel for continuing dialogue following the meeting between a six-strong UNI-ver.di team and top DHL Human Resources people, including Boyd Williams who is Senior Vice President of HR Asia Pacific for DHL.

As well as building dialogue to ensure an independent voice for DHL workers, PEG has been focusing on health and safety issues following a survey at DHL Express Hong Kong.

UNI Development also has a project in Latin America aimed at organising DHL workers - including delivery workers, who are very often not directly employed by the German-based logistics giant.

UNI meets DHL management in Hong Kong

Dirk Marx from ver.di - who is chairman of the group Works Council and a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Post World Net – stressed during the meeting that workers are fully organised in Germany and in DHL’s China operations. The UNI team pressed for greater access to workers in the secure airport complex for contact and recruitment. UNI Deputy General Secretary Philip Bowyer stressed that the company has a code of conduct and corporate values that include the core labour rights of the International Labour Organisation (including the right to join unions and to collective bargaining) and the United Nation’s Global Compact.

UNI-Asia Pacific Secretary Christopher Ng stressed that unions are partners and can help companies in solving internal problems. In fact the region gives partnership awards to companies that build unions into their business and develop dialogue.

The team were given a guided tour of DHL’s new central Hong Kong administrative offices, which include a call centre and a training centre.



“DHL, like many companies, spends a lot of time building communication systems direct with employees - but those workers also need the protection of a collective voice through a trade union,” said Michael Siu. “Workers doing the same job have a union voice in other parts of DHL and we want to build that in Hong Kong.”

Some of the issues already identified by members in DHL Hong Kong include job security, pay and work pressures.

The drive to organise DHL workers is important for the whole Hong Kong trade union movement says Elizabeth Tang, Chief Executive of the union centre HKCTU. “If this project succeeds, it will give us a new way of organising. We will be able to copy this method into other sectors.”

Later UNI, UNI-Asia Pacific and ver.di met with project organisers and activists from DHL to discuss progress. Networking is to be stepped up and organising innovations launched.

Experiences were exchanged from various parts of the DHL empire including Germany, the US and Mongolia.