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Europe has a massive reserve army of unemployed. Those in work are looking over their shoulder at the 18m workless and ahead to insecurity. The out-of-work are lost to trade unions.
At the insistence of the French socialist government, presiding over an unemployment rate of 12.5%, a summit of heads of state was held in November on the crisis affecting the continent.
As part of their preparation for this summit, held in Luxembourg, the European Commission, the EU's civil service, drew up draft guidelines for governments to follow in employment policies. The Commission estimated that 12m jobs could be created across Europe by the year 2002 with better co-ordination of employment policies at European level.
Unions, including the TUC, are represented in Europe by the European TUC. As one of the social partners (the others are employers' federations) they have a right to be consulted about proposed legislation, agreements and policy. They are not surprisingly at the forefront of campaigning for measures to reduce unemployment, but their ideas, largely based around sharing the work available, are not echoed in the nation states policies. The ETUC also made its case before the summit:
1. For the EU to adopt an economic co-ordination pact.
2. Co-ordination of tax systems.
3. Involve the social partners more closely in employment strategy at a European level.
4. Targets for investment in training.
5. Expansion of the territorial employment pacts programme.
6. For European aid to be focused more on employment and vocational training.
7. A 35 hour week.
8. Revision of the Working Time Directive to cut the maximum working week from 48 to 44 hrs.
9. Sabbatical, training or parental leave for at least five percent of employees (job rotation).
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