With 57 million members, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is by far the largest trade union umbrella group in Europe. Despite a weak start in the 1970s, ETUC has increased its standing in recent years, thanks to the emerging corporatist system on the European level. Nonetheless, ETUC has a long way to go before it can provide a social counterbalance to European multinational corporations. In effect, this means a race against the clock at a time when cross-border mergers and relocations are daily occurrences.
"We were very weak until 1985," says Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram, one of ETUC's spokespersons in Brussels. "Just a letter box."1 During the 1980s, the first steps were taken towards the implementation of the EU Social Dialogue. ETUC's status as one of the three official partners of the Social Dialogue (the others are CEEP, the public sector union and UNICE, the employers organization) has meant that the confederation is today acknowledged as a significant partner on the European level, and is consulted by the EU on legislation pertaining to social issues. "In a certain sense, we are as much a part of this whole European Union structure as is UNICE," Grunheber-Pilgram explains. "We have formal access, just like our members do on the national level."2 This means access at the highest level: ETUC meets regularly with the President of the Commission, and every six months with the new Presidency of the Union.
The European Commission has actively promoted negotiations between ETUC and UNICE. "We got a lot of money to set up consultation structures on a voluntary basis," Grunheber-Pilgram explains. He views this financing of negotiations as strategic on the part of the funders. "There is a mutual interest in getting this idea of European Union across. The European Commission needs the trade unions to implement European Monetary and Economic Union, and to implement its ideas about European social policies."3
Since 1986, ETUC and UNICE have arrived at more than 20 common positions. However, most concrete results coming from the EU are not the product of these negotiations, but were rather achieved through EU legislation. For example, negotiations between UNICE and ETUC on a directive for European Works Councils4 were blocked at the last minute by a veto from British employer's organization CBI. Nonetheless, these negotiations paved the way for the eventual EU directive. Grunheber-Pilgram admits that the intervention of the EU also saved ETUC from the difficult job of convincing every national trade union federation to accept the deal. "We need time to develop a common understanding about what European bargaining means. This is why the ETUC executive committee decided to go the way of the European Council."5
Despite having centralized its structure in 1991, ETUC is still weak. This can be attributed at least in part to the enormous diversity within and between national trade unions in Europe.6 And in spite of frequent negotiations between UNICE and ETUC, collective bargaining on the European level still does not exist. According to Grunheber-Pilgram, "Collective European bargaining will probably never be the sort of bargaining that we know from the national level."7 Furthermore, changes in the European economic landscape since the mid-80s have undermined the traditional power base of trade unions.8 Transnational corporations have increased their hold on European economies, and even smaller companies are more internationally oriented. The possibility of relocation - and the threat to do so - as well a general increase in international competition have weakened the position of trade unions. The European Social Dialogue still lacks teeth for the simple reason that the employers (UNICE) cannot be forced to do anything.
Thus, although formal access to the EU decision-making process has improved, ETUC clearly lacks the strength of trade unions on the national level. "In figures ETUC is very strong," says Grunheber-Pilgram. "But quantity is not important. The strength of an organization lies in its capacity to mobilise people."9 And here the problems begin: ETUC is still unknown among most national trade union members in Europe. For example, "The FNV (Dutch trade union federation) is recognized by its members. They identify with it, which is not the case at the European level."10 In order to "create such an identity and to put us in the light where people can see us,"11
ETUC deals almost exclusively with its official social partner UNICE, and has no contact with the ERT. "It is not an organization like UNICE," says ETUC spokesperson Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram. "There is no organization comparable with UNICE on the European level, so we have to deal with them."12
ETUC will organize its second European day of action on May 28th. This action day will focus on rising unemployment in Europe, and according to Grunheber-Pilgram hopes to "influence the outcome of the IGC and to draw attention to our demands: the employment chapter, inclusion of the Social Protocol, social fundamental rights and a couple of other issues."13
Today, ETUC has "a more consistent vision about the most important European problems"14 than it did in the late 80s, according to Grunheber-Pilgram. Back then, for example, British trade unions were strongly against European integration. According to Grunheber-Pilgram, Commission President Delors played an important role in convincing sceptical unions to work for a European Union with a social dimension. Ultimately, ETUC has set its hopes on the European Union to combat unemployment and protect social rights in a globalizing world. Trade unions therefore demand that current EU policies, including European Monetary Union, should be accompanied by a Social Union with social standards to avoid competition on policies and social dumping.
Although cooperation between ETUC and the European Commission
may be close in some areas, the partnership applies only to some
branches of the Commission. "I wouldn't say that ETUC has
the same positive stand in all directorates in the European Commission,"
says Grunheber-Pilgram. "We are very strong in Directorate
General 5 [Social Affairs], and in Directorate General 10 [Communications],
but as soon as you discuss industrial policy, our position is
not so strong. Our access to Mr. Bangemann [Commissioner for Industry]
is not as good as our access to Mr. Padraig Flynn [Commissioner
for Social Affairs]."15
The trade unions are remarkably loyal to the overall political direction of the EU, even when it is clearly biased towards neo-liberal principles (which are by default anti-social). For example, ETUC recently launched a media offensive voicing its concerns about the effects of the convergence criteria on jobs and calling for the EU to take action against unemployment. However, at the same time ETUC trade unions asked for faster implementation of Santer's Confidence Pact. This plan, as described in chapter 2.1, is largely an action plan for the further deregulation of European economies and the flexibilization of labour markets.
Probably also influenced by its involvement in the Competitiveness Advisory Group (see chapter 2.3), ETUC has largely signed on to the neo-liberal agenda of the ERT and UNICE in the past few years. This agenda is not exactly a great deal for trade unions, one could say, but ETUC has clearly chosen for the strategy of adapting to globalization and working within the Union to protect the European welfare states. A race against the clock indeed, which until now is not working to the advantage of social protection and employment in Europe.
1. Personal interview with Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram, Brussels, 21 February 1997. |back to text|
2. Ibid. |back to text|
3. Ibid. |back to text|
4. Any company with at least 1,000 employees in the EU and at least 150 in two countries must set up a European works council. |back to text|
5. Personal interview with Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram, Brussels, 21 February 1997. |back to text|
6. For example, the British Trade Union Congress consists of almost 100 overlapping craft, industrial and general unions. The German trade unions, on the other hand, were re-established after the second World War with one union per industrial sector, resulting in the trade union federation DGB having only 17 unions with no overlapping membership. In many countries, trade unions are organized according to specific national political or religious circumstances. |back to text|
7. Personal interview with Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram, Brussels, 21 February 1997. |back to text|
8. Social movements and the Changing Structure of Political Opportunity in the European Union, Gary Marks and Doug McAdam. |back to text|
9. Personal interview with Alfons Grunheber-Pilgram, Brussels, 21 February 1997. |back to text|
10. Ibid. |back to text|
11. Ibid. |back to text|
12. Ibid. |back to text|
13. Ibid. |back to text|
14. Ibid. |back to text|
15. Ibid. |back to text|