European Trade Union Movement Research Articles

Social Status and Class Identity of the Organized Working Class in Serbia

This article explores the relationship between the European identity of the organized working class and its class power in Serbian society. We understand the collective European identity of the organized working class in Serbia to primarily mean adherence to the European social model embodied in collective bargaining, that is, in a social dialogue among social partners: the trade unions, employers, and the state. The European identity of the organized working class in Serbia is also reflected in its support for the values of human rights, private property, the market economy, and multi-party parliamentary democracy. We understand “trade union power” to mean the extent of its capacity to achieve set goals. That is, how much the commitment and the efforts of the representative trade unions in Serbia: The Confederation of Autonomous Trade Unions of Serbia (SSSS/CATUS) and The Trade Union Confederation (UGS/TUC) “Nezavisnost” („Independence”) to join the European trade union movement and become members of the European Trade Union Confederation, the only representative European trade union organization and the recognized social partner at the level of the European Union, contributed to the more prominent role and a more remarkable power of these trade unions in Serbia. Our research is based on the critical discourse analysis (CDA) – discourse-historical approach (DHA), and economic history context.

New Generation Trade Treaties – The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 28 Volume 22 Issue 3 2015 were made to ILO Conventions, reaffirming workers ’ rights, that nothing in the agreement could bind corporations and secure enforcement of rights, and nothing was included to protect collective agreements. Finally he argued that CETA and TTIP, if agreed, would provide the opportunity for corporations to challenge differences between employment law regimes of EU member states, undermining the basis for social Europe and facilitating the race to the bottom. A north American perspective on trade agreements was provided by Ben Davies (USW). He outlined some of the differences between EU and US standards and how, in the area of chemicals, TTIP could lead to the undermining of the EU’s precautionary principle (where chemicals must not be used until evidence indicates they are safe). He provided evidence of the difficulties of using ILO conventions within free trade agreements (not least due to their low level of ratification in the US) and how the US state has not responded to the assassination of trade unionists in Guatemala, despite complaints filed under the bilateral trade agreement over 7 years ago. Despite the challenges , the USW continued to campaign and lobby actively against these new generation trade agreements and stressed the importance of building support against TTIP and CETA from among the European trade union movement. Discussions surrounding the position in Europe included contributions from Penny Clarke (EPSU) who stressed the federation’s opposition to ISDS and the liberalisation of public services, Steve French (Keele University) who examined the TTIP negotiations in the light of the proposed referendum on EU membership in the UK and Ben Richards (Unite) who examined the issues in building support across European trade unions to oppose free trade agreements. He highlighted the contrasting positions of CO Industri (Denmark) and CGT-FTM (France) within IndustriALL-Europe and how agreement was being forged around key principles which had to be applied in any new generation agreement. The final speaker was Labour MEP, Judith Kirton-Darling, who stressed the opportunity that the new generation trade agreements might play in re-regulating international trade, and the role of Labour MEPs within the social democratic bloc within the European Parliament in trying to secure opposition to TTIP if it did not exclude ISDS, public services and secure binding labour rights. She highlighted the difficulties in building a coalition to oppose TTIP in the Parliament, and the difficulties in gaining access to information about the treaty. In summary, the seminar was an excellent event to promote debate and understanding around the complex and apparently remote topic of international trade agreements for many trade unionists. to be added T his is a brief report of a three-day seminar organised by Unite the union in July 2015, focusing upon the growth of free trade agreements and trade union responses. Opening the seminar Adrian Weir (Assistant Chief of Staff, Unite) placed the seminar into context, outlining how Unite had adopted a position of opposing TTIP in in its entirety at its policy conference in July 2014 and how this position had been adopted in relation to the proposed TTIP, CETA, TPP and TISA trade agreements at the 2014 TUC Congress. Finally, the steering group of Workers Uniting (Unite-USW partnership) had committed to full opposition to these new trade agreements. The seminar was then addressed by Peter Rossman (IUF) who outlined how the development of the new generation trade agreements, starting with NAFTA in 1994, was little to do with removing trade barriers, and focused upon protecting the investment rights of transnational corporations . One example was the attempt to extend trade deals to services, affecting those services associated with manufacturing as well as public services traditionally supplied by the state. Crucially, one aim of the new agreements was to apply a principle of ‘negative listing’, so that governments could only exclude services from a trade agreement at the time of signature, meaning that returning these to the public sector and excluding new emergent sectors would become impossible, locking in privatisation. This would be secured through Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in agreements which allowed corporations to take governments to secret courts for loss, or even the...

Social Europe as a Multilevel Governance: The Italian Perspective

The article deals with history and historiography of Social Europe, understood as integration of social forces (mainly the trade-unions) of the different European countries. The communitarian dimension of trade-unionism, indeed, is a topic more and more considered by historians. Starting from the first attempts of Europeanization of social dynamics in the ‘50s, the article follows the development of Social Europe trough its different stages: the political approach to the “social affairs” in 1957-1964; the spreading of the need to establish an European trade-union movement; the “long tunnel” of 1974-1984; the renewed trade-unionist awareness which made emerge a “Social Europe”; the social protocols annexed to the treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam. The article underlines the scarce capacity for initiative of an articulated European trade-union representation, but points out that social dimension has always accompanied the success of the stages for the European unification and the reasons of its expansion.

On Standing's A Precariat Charter: Confronting the Precaritisation of Labour in Brazil and Portugal

<p>Guy Standing’s new book, A Precariat Charter, does not allow us to forget that we live under the shadow of the “precariat” – a group of people who are deprived of any work-related guarantees, subjected to uncertain income, and without a collective identity that is rooted in a labour world. Among the many merits of his most recent book, Standing reports the damaging effects suffered by a substantial section of the European trade union movement. At the root of this decline is labour’s submission to a socially irresponsible and environmentally unsustainable model of development. First, I will examine the book from a Southern perspective. The data and examples that Standing provide pertain largely to changing working-class relations in advanced capitalist countries. In contrast, I will focus my attention on the metamorphosis of the working class in the Global South – particularly Brazil – during the post-Fordist era in order to raise questions about the class character of the precariat.</p>

Building Coalitions for Transnational Trade Union Solidarity: Comparative Analysis of Three Campaigns from Turkey

As in many other countries Turkish trade unions have become increasingly active in applying transnational mechanisms to target transnational corporations (TNCs) and suppliers that do not respect labor rights. This article focuses on the contributions of Global Union Federations (GUFs) in coordinating transnational solidarity campaigns and the European trade union movement’s use of its 'social dialogue' policy to support Turkish struggles. The method of organizing transnational solidarity campaigns through a coalition building process among unions and pro-labor NGOs is explained and three solidarity campaigns from Turkey, (UPS campaign in the transport sector, Novamed campaign in the chemical sector and the DESA campaign in the textile-leather sector) are compared. This coalition building process offers suitable conditions to unite the power coming from production with the power coming from consumption and is able to put effective pressure on TNCs to respect labor rights. The ability of transnational campaigns to follow up issues and coalitions' willingness to work together for a long period determine the fate of unions' activities.

New Generation Trade Treaties — The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 28 Volume 22 Issue 3 2015 were made to ILO Conventions, reaffirming workers ’ rights, that nothing in the agreement could bind corporations and secure enforcement of rights, and nothing was included to protect collective agreements. Finally he argued that CETA and TTIP, if agreed, would provide the opportunity for corporations to challenge differences between employment law regimes of EU member states, undermining the basis for social Europe and facilitating the race to the bottom. A north American perspective on trade agreements was provided by Ben Davies (USW). He outlined some of the differences between EU and US standards and how, in the area of chemicals, TTIP could lead to the undermining of the EU’s precautionary principle (where chemicals must not be used until evidence indicates they are safe). He provided evidence of the difficulties of using ILO conventions within free trade agreements (not least due to their low level of ratification in the US) and how the US state has not responded to the assassination of trade unionists in Guatemala, despite complaints filed under the bilateral trade agreement over 7 years ago. Despite the challenges , the USW continued to campaign and lobby actively against these new generation trade agreements and stressed the importance of building support against TTIP and CETA from among the European trade union movement. Discussions surrounding the position in Europe included contributions from Penny Clarke (EPSU) who stressed the federation’s opposition to ISDS and the liberalisation of public services, Steve French (Keele University) who examined the TTIP negotiations in the light of the proposed referendum on EU membership in the UK and Ben Richards (Unite) who examined the issues in building support across European trade unions to oppose free trade agreements. He highlighted the contrasting positions of CO Industri (Denmark) and CGT-FTM (France) within IndustriALL-Europe and how agreement was being forged around key principles which had to be applied in any new generation agreement. The final speaker was Labour MEP, Judith Kirton-Darling, who stressed the opportunity that the new generation trade agreements might play in re-regulating international trade, and the role of Labour MEPs within the social democratic bloc within the European Parliament in trying to secure opposition to TTIP if it did not exclude ISDS, public services and secure binding labour rights. She highlighted the difficulties in building a coalition to oppose TTIP in the Parliament, and the difficulties in gaining access to information about the treaty. In summary, the seminar was an excellent event to promote debate and understanding around the complex and apparently remote topic of international trade agreements for many trade unionists. to be added T his is a brief report of a three-day seminar organised by Unite the union in July 2015, focusing upon the growth of free trade agreements and trade union responses. Opening the seminar Adrian Weir (Assistant Chief of Staff, Unite) placed the seminar into context, outlining how Unite had adopted a position of opposing TTIP in in its entirety at its policy conference in July 2014 and how this position had been adopted in relation to the proposed TTIP, CETA, TPP and TISA trade agreements at the 2014 TUC Congress. Finally, the steering group of Workers Uniting (Unite-USW partnership) had committed to full opposition to these new trade agreements. The seminar was then addressed by Peter Rossman (IUF) who outlined how the development of the new generation trade agreements, starting with NAFTA in 1994, was little to do with removing trade barriers, and focused upon protecting the investment rights of transnational corporations . One example was the attempt to extend trade deals to services, affecting those services associated with manufacturing as well as public services traditionally supplied by the state. Crucially, one aim of the new agreements was to apply a principle of ‘negative listing’, so that governments could only exclude services from a trade agreement at the time of signature, meaning that returning these to the public sector and excluding new emergent sectors would become impossible, locking in privatisation. This would be secured through Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses in agreements which allowed corporations to take governments to secret courts for loss, or even the...

South–South Labor Internationalism: SIGTUR and the Challenges to the Status Quo

Labor internationalism and solidarity has been dominated historically by the European trade union movement. The 2008 economic crisis and the rise of emerging economies have led to a gradual reorientation of labor relations, increasing the capacity of a group of southern trade unions to influence transnational labor solidarity. This article reviews the increasing connectivity between southern trade unions, with a focus on the Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights (SIGTUR), which groups confederations from the Global South, with leading unions from Brazil, Argentina, Korea, South Africa, and Australia, among others. The leading argument is that despite shortcomings, SIGTUR has the potential to revitalize labor internationalism through extending the network into articulated global actions that challenge dominant neoliberal globalization.

European Trade Unions and Free Trade: Between International Solidarity and Perceived Self-Interest

Opposition to capital's promotion of free trade and deregulated markets should be a unifying factor binding together the transnational labour movement. Yet the predominant stance of European trade unions has been to support the free trade agenda promoted by the European Union, while calling for social conditionalities to offset its most negative impacts. This article seeks to draw out the ambivalent positioning of the European trade union movement over and against free trade, and to explain its contradictions as evidence of tension between the instrumental and expressive tendencies faced by trade unions in their pursuit of self-interest in the globalised economy. The analysis concludes that a more radical articulation of the labour movement's political interests is required if this tension is to be resolved in favour of transnational solidarity.

The EU Approach to Regulating Nanotechnology

The European Union's (EU) nanotechnology strategy aims chiefly to catch up the lag behind the US and Asia. The health risks posed by the commercial use of nanomaterials have recently come onto the European Commission's agenda. The Commission has not so far seen a need for specific legislation to govern nanotechnologies - a view not shared by either Parliament or the European trade union movement. The European Trade Union Confederation wants the EU to bring the Community legislative framework into line with the precautionary principle. Nanotechnologies may be an economic opportunity that the EU cannot ignore, but their unregulated development is causing growing concern among trade unions due to the health risks posed by certain types of nanomaterials. In this publication, ETUI researcher Aida Ponce combines a detailed survey of European policy in the area with an exploration of the ethical and social issues surrounding nanotechnologies.

Max van der Stoel: A life in the service of mankind

In the steady flow of sorrowful responses to the news of the death of Max van der Stoel earlier this year, four words regularly occupied an important position: idealism, dedication, integrity and modesty. These same words describe precisely my personal experience and observations of Max during his full life in Dutch politics, as a diplomat, in senior international positions and as a Minister of State. As a result of our highly divergent careers and probably also due to our considerable age difference, in our day-to-day life, our paths crossed considerably less often than would perhaps be expected. On those occasions when it did happen, however, we generally required few words to confirm the high degree of consensus and like-mindedness between us. In the early nineteen sixties — a period when Max was already a member of the Dutch Upper Chamber and for some time had been associated with the research institute for the Dutch Labour Party (the Wiardi Beckman Stichting) based in Amsterdam’s Tesselschadestraat — I occasionally saw him walking down the road, sometimes together with Joop den Uyl, eating his lunchtime sandwich or an apple, from a plastic sandwich bag. I had recently started work nearby in the Vondelstraat, as a young policy worker of the construction union of the Dutch Trade Union Congress (NVV), and would often spend my lunchtime in the same way. In other words, as young men, we were both employed with a branch of what at the time was still known as ‘the Red Family’; the branches in question, however, were separated by a considerable gulf. Furthermore, Max was already clearly in the process of establishing a position for himself; I, on the other hand, was fresh to the job. It would be more than ten more years before my career elevated me to chairmanship of the NVV, later the FNV, and as a natural extension thereof, also of the European trade union movement. During that same period, Max occupied a number of important Cabinet positions — twice Minister and once Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs — and, as a member of the Dutch Lower and Upper Chamber established a wealth of parliamentary experience. When I first entered the Dutch Lower Chamber as an elected people’s representative, in 1986, Max had moved away from The Hague several years previously, to take up the position of Dutch ambassador to the United Nations. It was however specifically in his capacity as UN ambassador that I came to know Max more intimately. As chairman of the FNV, I was invited to join an international commission whose role was to issue proposals for the drawing up of a code of conduct for multinational companies. My work took me to New York

Trade unions and transnational regulation in Europe: developments and limitations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to consider the situation of workers' rights in the context of European Works Councils (EWCs) in the metalworking sector.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the preconditions, forms and patterns of trade union transnational coordination under the regime of cross‐border competition and, in particular, its transnational implications for employment regulation in multinationals in Europe. The paper is based on evidence from the metal sector at the European Union level in the direction of establishing a framework for transnational bargaining at company level in Europe.FindingsThe paper argues that workers' representation rights at the European level (EWCs) and their resources can be very important in supporting the trade unions' bargaining activity in a situation of cross‐border negotiation in multinational companies. In the absence of a legal framework, the very recent engagement by the European trade union movement to coordinate bargaining across borders, while stipulating agreements at the European company level (European Framework Agreements) for common regulatory purposes, represents a “necessary” and “essential” – although not “sufficient” condition – for transnational collective bargaining.Originality/valueThe paper ties the formation of EWCs to the early European project of a “social Europe”.

Shop stewards as coordinators of employee-driven innovation: implications for trade unions

Recently, there has been an increase in the attention paid to innovation. However, most of the attention seems to be devoted to innovation which takes place between organizations or between organizations and their customers. It is therefore useful to stand back a little and think about innovation within organizations: how does it take place, who are the actors involved, and how is it coordinated at different organizational levels. This article presents the results of qualitative research among seven Danish organizations, which have revolutionized their ways of organizing the production process. The article shows that shop stewards have become crucial organizational actors in coordinating employee-driven innovation (EDI) inside the firm by connecting different organizational and institutional levels. This has several implications for the European trade union movement.

Transnational Labour Solidarity: Mechanisms of Commitment to Cooperation within the European Trade Union Movement – By Katarzyna Gajewska

Transnational Labour Solidarity: Mechanisms of Commitment to Cooperation within the European Trade Union Movement – By Katarzyna Gajewska

European Labor: Social Dialogue, Social Pacts, or a Social Europe?

For many years the European trade union movement has demanded a "social Europe" from European governments and the European Union (EU). If the integration of Europe were to be successful, it had to be accompanied by a strong social dimension—a people's Europe. This was also the expressed aim of European social democracy—to regain control of capital forces and create a "social Europe" through the European Union. Now, for the first time since the establishment of the European Economic Community (EEC), social democratic, or social democratic dominated governments have been in power throughout the EU for some years. However, a "social Europe" has yet to be realized.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Documents of the international and European trade union movement in the Archives of Social Democracy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Documents of the international and European trade union movement in the Archives of Social Democracy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation

Towards a ‘European’ works council

Early critiques of the new procedures for information and consultation within multinationals in the EU pose serious questions as to whether such structures have the potential for being either ‘European’ or a works council. This article attempts to clarify some of the dimensions of a transnationality which delegates would like to see prevail within their European works councils. Such elements as ‘a level playing field’; the EWC as a learning organisation, awareness of constituencies, solidarity and multilingualism and multiculturalism have been advanced as a key set of organisational features of a transnational worker body seeking to transcend national culture. The development of such values and practices may be achievable via a new trade union pedagogy: However, given the absence of any steer within the Directive on training the European trade union movement would appear to be at a critical juncture as the opportunity for a revision arises.

Facing up to the internationalisation of markets and competition: a challenge for the European trade union movement

Facing up to the internationalisation of markets and competition: a challenge for the European trade union movement

The United States and the European Trade Union Movement, 1944-1951. Federico Romero , Harvey Fergusson IIInternational Labour and the Origins of the Cold War. Denis MacShane

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsThe United States and the European Trade Union Movement, 1944-1951. Federico Romero , Harvey Fergusson II International Labour and the Origins of the Cold War. Denis MacShane Anthony DaleyAnthony Daley Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Modern History Volume 67, Number 2Jun., 1995 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/245106 Views: 3Total views on this site Copyright 1995 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

A role for a pan‐European trade union movement?–possibilities in European IR‐regulation

Steps towards internationalisation of the trade union movement are considered in the context of the process of political and economic integration taking place in the EU. The trade unions are trying–partly via the ETUC–to play a role at pan‐European level. However, the European trade union movement is not a cohesive entity. Besides, it has no significant transnational power‐resources. These factors suggest that any European IR‐system will be based primarily on political regulation rather than on a system of collective agreements.

Federico Romero. <italic>The United States and the European Trade Union Movement, 1944–1951</italic>. Translated by Harvey Fergusson II Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1992. Pp. xvi, 292. $39.95

Federico Romero. <italic>The United States and the European Trade Union Movement, 1944–1951</italic>. Translated by Harvey Fergusson II Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1992. Pp. xvi, 292. $39.95