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TO HOME PAGE| Recently two leading figures in the British and European trade union movement gave related speeches which highlighted the stark choices facing us as the growth of American-style ‘new’ capitalism eats away at the European tradition of employer/union consensus and negotiation. We analyse their views as to whether the European Social Model can be made effective in its defence. | JOHN MONKS, GENERAL SECRETARY OF
THE European Trade Union Confederation and Billy Hayes, his counterpart
at the UK’s Communication Workers Union have both used recent speeches
to address the subject of how to oppose the march of neo-liberalism. By
this they mean not only the ubiquitous ‘globalisation’ but also the
rise of ‘hedge funds’ and ‘private equity companies’, ownership with no
allegiance to any country or region and uninterested in training and
product quality seeing them only as obstacles to short-term profit. Mr.
Monks gave the examples of Heineken who simultaneously announced a 56%
increase in profits and plans for 1,000 redundancies, Nestlé who
added outsourcing and casualisation after a 21% profit rise and the
infamous Gate Gourmet who came under pressure from new owners Texas
Pacific, a private equity firm. Such companies admit no responsibility
as employers, regarding the owned enterprise as an asset to be sold off
if its value exceeds the share price or used to service a previous
debt, as in the case of Manchester United. These locusts are close at
hand, 70% of Europe’s hedge funds are based in London. If trade unions can agree that these are negative developments what can be done to reverse them? John Monks advocates a more active approach by pension fund trustees and a continued consolidation of union power as in the recently formed International TUC but central to our defence should be the ‘European dimension’, he thinks. This is echoed by Billy Hayes: ‘Looking round the world, Europe and the European Social Model remains our best bet’ he told the Wales TUC. After mentioning the rights for working people that have been delivered by the EU he contrasts the support for public services, social security and welfare states in most European countries with America’s challenge to them. He sees Europe acting on the rest of the World through stronger European Works Councils holding multi-national companies to account and including core labour standards in trade agreements with external countries. European workers could be helped by economic growth sponsored by the European Central Bank and greater investment in research and development. These are fine aims but what are the immediate priorities? Mr. Hayes’s list includes the adoption of the Temporary Agency Workers directive, the ending of the UK opt-out in the Working Time directive, the revision of the Posted Workers directive, the strengthening of the European Works Council directive and new legislation to extend employment rights to those on atypical contracts or in domestic work. He admits that the UK government is the main obstacle to at least two of these demands affecting, for instance, 600,000 workers employed by temporary agencies, and leaves room for reform of the Council of Ministers voting system to stop such vetoes. He too stresses invigorating the unions through Europe-wide recruitment and organisation, citing the Strasbourg demonstrations against the Services and Ports directives. So if we can achieve at least some of these changes, where do we want to get to? Billy Hayes outlines the TUC General Council’s vision of a prosperous Europe where workers have positive rights and a strong voice through their unions; investment in education, health and social services allows all to realise their potential without discrimination and economic growth is balanced by sustainability. According to John Monks: ‘Social Europe seems to me to be a great source of union strength. It can take on the casino capitalists’. |
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