European Trade Union Solidarity for Quality Jobs, Workers' Rights and a Fair Society

(5 October 2015) On Monday 21 September I joined many trade unionists and young members from our German affiliate ver.di in Leipzig in a protest against a demonstration by the anti-Islamic Legida group. Legida is the local variant of the Pegida group that is spreading Islamaphobic propaganda across Germany. They promote their agenda of discrimination and hatred against other people with refugees now their main target.

I had to think of the people in the Legida group when listening to a powerful speech made during last week’s Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in Paris. The Swedish minister responsible for education, Aida Hadzialic, gave testimony of how she had become minister. Aida was a refugee when she fled war and destruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early nineties. The Swedish people welcomed her and many others during a time of recession for the Swedish economy. Aida became involved in the union movement and the Social Democratic Party and was able to study and work her way up to minister. In her speech she said: "I have encountered evil. It is called nationalism."

And we are seeing a lot of this lately. The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is playing on such sentiments to mobilise political opinion against refugees. He expects to gain politically by pushing his authoritarian and anti-union agenda. He is not the only one. Parties of the far right are exploiting feelings of insecurity. Geert Wilders, the leader of the extreme right party PVV in the Netherlands is such an example. He works with the Flemish Belang and the French Front National in the European Parliament. Wilders told the Dutch Parliament that it does not represent the views of the population. Presumably only he does. This reveals the profoundly undemocratic nature of these parties. He called on people to mobilise against the welcoming and sheltering of refugees in their villages and towns. It just stops short of calling for pogroms. I fear we will see more of this.

The anti-Legida demonstration in Leipzig was a success as we succeeded in blocking the Legida march. This was a positive end to the first day of the ver.di congress which saw the re-election of Frank Bsirske as president while a number of other ver.di colleagues active in EPSU sectors were elected onto the Board of the union.

There were also elections at the ETUC Congress which voted in a new president, Rudy de Leeuw of the Belgian confederation FGTB and a new General Secretary, Luca Visentini, who had previously served as a Confederal Secretary. The ETUC said goodbye to outgoing General Secretary, Bernadette Ségol, with a standing ovation. Bernadette guided the Confederation through a difficult time for European workers with attacks against trade unions and continued austerity in many countries. Peter Scherrer and Veronica Nilsson were voted in as the two new Deputy General Secretaries along with a new team in the ETUC Secretariat. The EPSU delegation played an active role at Congress where we saw two EPSU amendments adopted with the necessary two-thirds majority. The ETUC now supports a common consolidated corporate tax base with a minimum corporate tax rate of at least 25% in the EU. It is a powerful sign to the Commission which is expected to publish proposals to combat tax dumping. These should ensure corporations pay their fair share. Many profitable companies pay as little as 1% tax.

The other EPSU amendment adopted by Congress concerned public contracts which the ETUC wants published, on the basis that these are financed by public money and that there are no good reason for confidentiality. That such transparency is essential was underlined last week by Swedish newspapers. These revealed that companies that had won public contracts to host refugees were abusing them to increase their profits. This is public money that could be used for other purposes.

The Congress also adopted other amendments that were supported by EPSU, including constitutional amendments to strengthen the voice of younger workers in the ETUC. Several emergency resolutions were adopted. EPSU contributed to the resolutions on refugees and on the TISA trade in services negotiations in particular. Speakers for EPSU included Isolde Kunkel-Weber, Rossana Dettori and myself while Françoise Geng participated in a panel on the future role of the ETUC. Congress ended with the adoption of the Paris Manifesto. The next ETUC Executive will prioritise the implementation of the work programme.

EPSU and its member unions have been busy over recent weeks. Unions in the health and social services have decided to make our common voice against the commercialisation of care heard more clearly. This is needed in the light of comments by European Commissioner Andriukaitis that more cross-border mobility of patients is needed as it is cost effective. We see this as inevitably leading to cross-border competition. It not only has negative consequences for workers and patients but also undermines the public interest and solidarity basis of our health and social security systems. EPSU's local and regional government unions are considering the impact of digitalisation on public services. Trade unions want to ensure that these new technologies are a force for the better. We also published a new brochure on the work of EPSU and its affiliates in social services. Our affiliates in National Administration have had a further round of negotiations on information and consultation rights that will be discussed at EPSU NEA standing committee later this week while the European employers are also consulting their members. EPSU unions in the utilities are the key drivers of just transition and they have managed to convince the European employers and the European Council to support our demands. It will become a main EU negotiating point during the COP21 climate change conference in Paris at the end of this year.

And EPSU affiliates are active in many other ways. On 4 October 60.000 people protested against the UK government's continued austerity policies and attacks on trade unions. We expect many people will support the demos against the CETA and TTIP trade deals in Germany (Berlin) and Netherlands on 10 October and in Brussels on 15 October and hundred thousands will come to Paris on 29 November for the big European climate change demonstration. Such actions are effective. On 18 September, Finnish trade unions mobilised against attacks on employment rights and the government there is now changing its proposals and wants to negotiate with the unions. And that was one of the main messages of the ETUC Congress in Paris. We need to organise, mobilise and be visible as European trade unions in defence of Europe's workers and people.

In solidarity,

Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary

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