Strikes against foreign contractors

Abstract

FOCUS □ PRECARIOUS, INFORMAL AND MIGRANT WORKERS Strikes against foreign contractors A xenophobia. spectre raise against ishaunting Many labour expected Europe migration the thespectre spectre stemming of to xenophobia. Manyexpectedthespectre to raise againstlabour migration stemming fromthe EU enlargement eastwards.However, thespectre has longkeptquiet.Apart from riots against Romanians in Southern Italy(whichhad nothing to do withemployment, butmuchwith pre-existing urbandegradation), there havebeen no prominent protests againstEastern European migrants. The extreme Right was too busywith Muslim migrants toconsider the(whiteandmostlyChristian ) Eastern Europeanones. Itwas also strongest incountries thathad kepttheir borders closedwith'transitional arrangements' (Austria), thaninthosewhichhad opened itto thelargest inflows (UK,Ireland, andsoonafterwards Spain). ItseemedthatEuropewas copingwellwiththe freedom of movement of labour- until January 2009,atleast. The problem is that, whilemigration was taking place without muchprotest (and withthe enthusiasm of the EuropeanCommissionand western employers), thefreedom ofmovement of services was emerging as a contested socialissue. The so-called'Bolkestein Directive' opened the debates.Unlikethe freedomof movementof workers, thatof servicesis not subjectto any transitional periodlimitation. In spiteoftheserviceDirective notbeingapprovedintheoriginal Bolkestein text - with the'country oforigin' principle -, thedestabilising effect of thisfreedom hasbecomeapparent veryquickly. TheLavalconflict of2004inSweden,withthe subsequent EuropeanCourtofJustice's ruling in 2007,has been thefirst clearcase. In thatoccasion (protests ofSwedishtradeunionsagainsta Latvian contractor adoptingLatvian, rather than Swedish,labour standards),the Swedish and Latvian employers tried toorganise Latvian workersinLatvian tradeunionsto bypassand underminetheSwedish ones.Thiscase evokedthefear of'liaisonsdangereuses' emerging betweeneasternEuropean unionsandemployers against 'protectionist ' western regulations - something capable of disrupting Europeanindustrial relations. Such developments have been avoided at the political level,butat greateffort, as in thedifficultnegotiation of a commonEuropeanTrade Union Confederation standpoint on the Bolkestein Directive. In concomitance to the transition periodson thefreedom of movement of workers, a 'tradeoffbetweenfreemovement ofworkers and free movement of servicesemerged, thelatter being more disruptive where the formeris limited (Germany andAustria aboveall).BothPolishand Germanmediahighlighted in 2007 the case of Polishsubcontractors employedby the largest meat-processing companyin Germany, Tönnies, withinits own factories. Germantradeunions were struggling to finda way to oppose the employment conditions ofPolishcontract workers (^.50/hour pay,84-hour working week),as thesewere notconsideredas Germanemployees . The laterRüffert and Luxembourg ECJrulings ,likeLaval's,highlighted howthefreedom of movement of serviceswas theAchilles'heel of western labourstandards. Interestingly enough,themostvisiblemobilisationsagainstforeign contract workersoccurred notin Germany or Austria (wheretradeunions supported limits to labourmigration), butin the 'open border' Sweden (Laval), Ireland (Irish Ferries), and UK (in construction engineering). The questionis thenwhether suchmobilisations' nature is nationalistic ornot- as theseareexactlythecountries where,atthesametime, thefree entry of migrants has proceededsmoothly and withtheconsent oforganised labour.In theIrish Ferriescase, the Latviantrade unions were involved,and some efforts in thisregardwere made also by theSwedes on Laval:thesecases arenotprimarily protectionist oragainstinternationalsolidarity , and xenophobictoneswerenot detected. Thecase that rangthealarmbellofnationalism occurred in theUK inJanuary-February 2009at the Total Lindseyrefinery, underthe banners 'British jobs forBritish workers' (a reference toa speech by GordonBrown).It did not actually involve workers from thenewmember states, but contractors fromone of the oldest founding membersof the EU, Italy.However,the case quickly gainednational relevance fortheissueof foreign contract workersin general,and especiallyfrom eastern Europe. In theLindsey case,theroleofthemediawas instrumental in depictingthe protestsagainst Siciliancontractor IREM as 'xenophobic'.BBC reportsengaged in selectivequotationswhen showing protesters saying 'we cannot work alongsidetheEyties'(a politically incorrect, but not necessarilyoffensive, colloquial termfor 'Italians'), cutting off thesubsequent explanations thattheywere notallowed to (rather thatthey did notwantto) worktogether withcontractor workers. Evenworsewas therepresentation of theeventsintheItalian media.Leftwing newspapers II manifesto and L'Unitàdevotedto itthe wholefirst pageandcompared theprotests tothe concomitant rightwing anti-migrant actions in Italy. As ifre-enacting theBoxers'revolt of1900, statebroadcaster RAI opened the reports from thesafety of thefloating bargethathousedthe Italianworkersunderalleged siege, and even provocatively interviewed Italian workerson Italian sites where British workers were employed, askingwhether theywantedto take Recentdisputes across Europe involving the cross-border movementof companies and so-called 'posting' ofworkershave revealed weaknesses of transnational union organisation GUGLIELMO MEARDI is Associate Professor (Reader) of Industrial Relations atthe University of Warwick in the UK Page 9 Volume 16Issue 3 2009 INTERNATIONAL union rights FOCUS □ PRECARIOUS,INFORMAL AND MIGRANT WORKERS Coordinated transnational responses to these cases by trade unions would keep xenophobia at bay and keep the focus on worker rights revenge forthetreatment oftheir compatriots in England(to thebafflement oftheinterviewees). Such reportshad politicaleffects, withstrong condemnations oftheprotests, amongothers, by BusinessSecretary LordMandelsonin the UK, and even from theItalianPresident Napolitano. The Sicilian governor Lombardo eventhreatened to stopprocurement ofcontracts to British companiesinretaliation . Suchportrayal influenced national andinternationaltradeunions .TheEuropeanaffairs...