The German union Verdi brought its negotiators together to discuss the coordination of collective bargaining in Europe. Examples of European coordination such as in EPSU (wage coordination guideline, EPSUCOB@, social dialogue committees, regions and transnational companies were given across the wide range of activities in Verdi. Important questions linking wage policy with broader macro-economic questions such as sustaining demand in the economy, redistribution of wealth and preventing wage dumping were considered. EPSU Deputy General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan explained the work of EPSU and introduced the resolution on collective bargaining which will be put before the EPSU Congress. Contributions from academics and IG Metall looked at the effect of EU-enlargement for collective bargaining policy.
Also in this light the significance of the wage coordination guideline was underlined to bring wages of the new member states to the EU level. A side theme was the negative effect the Services Directive can have on collective bargaining. The general conclusion of the meeting was that European coordination is important and needs to be strengthened.
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