LABOUR: Unions Worldwide Suffering from Loss of Power

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

BUCHAREST, Oct 22 2001 (IPS) - The world’s trade unions, blaming the effects of the globalisation process, are in a period of crisis marked by reduced power in the political arena and dwindling membership rolls. Nevertheless, the movement’s leaders are confident that a way out of current troubles can be found.

A glance at the trade union panorama shows that workers’ organisations are frequently on the defensive, with “unionisation” on a downward trend and young workers less inclined to make a commitment to a labour association.

The union movement faces “acts of aggression from the outside,” which its leaders relate to the expansion of globalisation’s neo-liberal economic model, according to the 25th congress of the World Confederation of Labour that began Monday in Bucharest, an event held every four years.

Trade unions also face difficulties in adapting to the new realities of the labour market. There has been a process leading to reduced employment in agriculture, heavy industry and the public sector, where unionisation has plummeted.

Meanwhile, there is very little trade union affiliation in the employment sectors that are in full expansion, such as services and information technology.

Willy Thys, WCL secretary general, said as the weeklong congress opened Monday, that the globalisation process has serious consequences for the union movement worldwide.

“The increase of poverty and social disparities, and the precariousness of employment constitute a real challenge to the workers’ movements,” which are called upon to defend labour interests at a time when their representational and political powers are under heavy pressures, said the Belgian-born Thys.

The labour leader presented a draft report of the labour situation to the meeting of the WCL, which unites 140 autonomous and democratic workers’ organisations from115 countries, mostly in the developing world.

The text does not hold back on criticisms against labour leaders themselves. Unionists are partly responsible for the current trade union crisis, said Thys.

He pointed to several reasons, including leadership conflicts, lack of internal democratic principles, lack of trade union culture and experience on the part of the members, and fragmentation of the trade union movement.

One of the causes of the crisis is the difficulty trade unions have in penetrating the new arenas of employment and categories of workers arising from innovations in technology and in the means of production.

The new labour market is characterised by heterogeneity and by the scant union representation of certain groups of workers. Within the new categories, there is a greater coexistence of men and women, of youth and the elderly, of citizens and immigrants, and of high and low wages.

Indefinite contracts exist alongside temporary contracts, stable employment alongside seasonal or precarious employment, and typical alongside atypical work, according to Thys.

Faced with this reality, the Brussels-based WCL recognises that the union movement must be open to new types of workers and include all groups and sectors. But the leaders of the international confederation admit that they face stumbling blocks when it comes to approaching workers in the informal economy.

To remedy the problem, Aída Martínez, of Venezuela, proposed in a discussion involving women unionists prior to the congress that labour organisations must seek alliances with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and with co-operatives and micro-enterprises, which have greater presence in the informal sector.

But an official of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Dimitrina Dimitrova, of Bulgaria, warned that trade unions should be cautious in striking up ties with groups that are less than representative of society.

The WCL unionists generally agree that the loss of public confidence in the labour movement should come as no surprise to the communications media.

The media are often accomplices to the economic and financial sectors in their campaigns aimed at discrediting workers’ organisations. “This reinforces the mistrust of representative democratic institutions and political parties,” says the WCL.

The ILO’s Dimitrova stated that there is currently “a culture of individualism that is widespread, and consumerism is dominating the values of solidarity which used to be part of the media coverageà when solidarity and the welfare state were much higher on the social economic agenda.”

Now, media coverage of these issues has dropped off, and “in Eastern Europe there often is silence about (union) activities, or unionists are projected negatively as troublemakers,” she said.

Another factor that conspires against trade unions is the decline in revenues as there are fewer and fewer workers on the rosters, and therefore fewer paying membership fees. Labour organisations are finding themselves restricted to taking action only when it is within their means.

This problem is particularly accentuated in the countries of the developing South and in Eastern Europe, as more and more workers are forced to accept precarious jobs and more and more fall below the poverty line.

The WCL report proposes that its member organisations draw up a long-term strategy for overcoming the current crisis.

Thys suggested that one approach might be to “establish a stronger relation between the trade union world and the human being, who is a worker but whose personality also has other aspects.” The WCL congress, the confederation’s highest body, will make its official stance known in a document to be released on the weekend.