LABOUR-EU: Toward a Borderless Union Movement

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 16 1999 (IPS) - Trade unions in Spain and Portugal are pressing for new rules and laws designed to break down national borders for the labour movement in the European Union (EU).

Spain’s two leading union confederations point out that while the EU has done away with the borders between its 15 member countries in trade, banking, and the free movement of persons, the rights of workers are still governed by national laws.

The ‘Union General de Trabajadores’ (UGT, pro-socialist) and ‘Comisiones Obreras’ (CCOO, pro-communist) said the 9th Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), to run Jun 29- Jul 2 in Helsinki, would be decisive with respect to the question of the “Europeanisation” of labour rights.

The proposal is currently being discussed by the Executive Committee of ETUC in Brussels.

According to ETUC, “only in a system of European labour relations, supported by a strong and independent union movement, can the social interests of workers be defended.”

That requires “a policy of collective bargaining coordinated at a European level, and the modernisation and consolidation of national union structures.”

CCOO spokesman Luis Mari told IPS that as a first step toward that objective, the Congress in Helsinki should approve the issuance of a European trade union card by ETUC, which would be valid in all EU member countries.

He pointed out that today there is no collective bargaining on labour conditions because management refuses, nor are there federations by branch of industry.

But not all trade unions in Europe share the views of labour in Spain and Portugal. Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg call, instead, for “regionalism with borders.”

That regionalism consists of agreements that do not affect entire countries, but provinces or border areas that strike deals with their neighbours on the other side.

Spain’s union leaders say they are aware that an essential requisite for “Europeanising” labour relations is the existence of more modern unions in each country, open to new groups of workers and capable of adapting to the new realities of the labour market.

One of those new realities is self-employment, according to which the services of individuals are contracted by companies, which do not extend fixed labour contracts or pay into social benefits. The self-employed meet the obligations of their own retirement and healthcare plans.

Technological development, meanwhile, is leading to a boom in long-distance or “telework,” mainly in administrative and technical tasks that can be performed outside the company, or even in another country.

The CCOO and UGT maintain that the breaking down of borders within the EU will also benefit workers from outside of Europe.

They say it will provide a means of enabling non-EU immigrants living in European countries to enjoy the same rights and meet the same social and trade union obligations as citizens. And in the longer-term, union agreements would acquire a universal character, they add.

Trade unions in Europe are concerned about unfair competition from imports of goods produced outside of Europe, manufactured by workers earning miserably low wages and whose rights are routinely violated, say the CCOO and UGT.

The aim, they add, is for transnational corporations to meet their labour and social obligations within and outside of Europe, and later for local companies in third party countries to do the same.

Social and labour rights fall under the umbrella of human rights, and all states and individuals are obligated to respect them, they point out.