From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Wed Jun 06 2007 - 16:00:46 EDT
Europe has one internal market, but still has 27 separate labour markets. European trade unions are going against the tide. Jobs disappear, investors are more concerned with profits than with employment, cheap staff makes its appearance from the new EU member countries, and the European labour movement tries to save what can be saved. By NRC editor Michèle de Waard Sevilla, 25 May. European trade union leader John Monks is visibly excited. "The right of trade unions to take action and force enterprises from other EU countries to stick to the collective employment contracts has prevailed. This is an important milestone for all European unions." He was responding to a message to that effect from the European Court of Justice, issued last Wednesday. In the Congress palace in Sevilla, there were loud cheers. More than a thousand European trade union representatives had travelled to the Spanish city to hold their four-yearly congress about a social Europe, which ended yesterday. "The stakes are very high for us", said Monks, the chairman of the European Trade Union Confederation, which includes trade unions with 60 million members in 36 countries. Admittedly there is only an preliminary opinion by two solicitors-general at the Court about two Swedish labour-conflicts, but usually the European judges, who will decide later this year, accept these conclusions. "At stake is a Europe that does not consist only of one internal market, but also has a social dimension", Monks (aged 62) says. "We are in favour of migration for workers. The trade unions are also in favour of globalisation. But we want to prevent that social security systems are undermined." So when the Latvian construction company Laval some years ago gained a contract to build a school in the Swedish town Vaxholm, the Swedish unions inquired if the staff could be paid according to the Swedish collective employment contracts. The company rejected this, and employed Latvian construction workers, who earnt a quarter of comparable Swedish salaries. In response, the Swedish unions blockaded the construction site, and pushed the Latvian company off the Swedish market. Laval went bankrupt, and took its case to the Swedish Labour Court, which referred it to the European Court of Justice. The Laval case is of great importance for labour relations in the EU. "Even our right to settle collective contracts is at stake", Monks says. If the Court judged that, in this issue, the national right of Sweden can be pushed aside, then this undermines the position of trade unions as party to collective employment contracts in the whole of Europe. The trade unions can certainly use their temporary backing from Luxemburg. For them, it is battling against the stream. Most European unions are suffering losses of members. "We have the tide against us in different areas", Monks admits. "The labour movement in Europe is confronted with a number of challenging questions: the number of poorly paid and insecure jobs is increasing. A growing inequality is emerging between the top earners and workers in enterprises. The share of salaries in the national income of many European countries is declining, the share of profits is increasing". Employers place the economic risks more and more with employees, Monks concludes. "At the same time, we have the feeling that in European business, a giant casino is being built. Large investors like private equity funds and hedge funds more and more lay down the rules." The takeover of ABN-Amro is, according to him, a case in point. "We are very worried about the new face of capitalism, and the lack of social obligations that these new financiers bring with them." That aside, the labour movement is battling with a loss of confidence in the ability of the EU to influence social progress. "We are busy making Europe one internal market, but we have 27 different labour markets. That causes frictions. Governments with a one-sided promotion of privatisation and liberalisation of the economy are making a big mistake. If Europe is seen exclusively as internal market with profits which go through the roof, and with jobs which disappear to cheap locations, the response of the population will be hostile and protectionist." Monks issued an appeal in Sevilla to the 60 million members to take the offensive. "We should not become a playground for adventurist shareholders. The trade unions want better wages and better jobs. We think that the EU should protect public services against the vicissitudes of the internal market. And fundamental social rights such as the right to strike, social negotiations and participating of workers in decisionmaking should be recognised. The protocol for constitutional rights must be completely included in the new European constitutional treaty. For that reason, we are demonstrating in June in Brussels." 25 mei 2007 Translated by Jurriaan Bendien from NCR-Handelsblad (Rotterdam) http://www.nrc.nl/economie/article714793.ece/Europese_vakbonden_hebben_tij_tegen See also http://sevilla.etuc.org/ and http://www.etuc.org/r/847 http://www.etuc.org/a/1866 http://www.labour.ie/press/listing/11799991783181236.html http://www.euractiv.com/en/socialeurope/court-to-back-trade-unions-rights/article-163956 http://www.epsu.org/a/1501 (for the Viking line case, see http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2006/05/articles/eu0605029i.html ) For the European Parliament debate, see http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/047-1705-298-10-43-908-20051019IPR01656-25-10-2005-2005-false/default_en.htm
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