Trade Unions and Civil Society: Joint Action in the EU
Social scientists and activists from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) discussed at a seminar in Vienna issues of foreign direct investments and their disputed role in economic development. Part II.
Sonja Buchberger - Jul. 09, 2007
After having critically assessed foreign direct investments (FDI) on Saturday, the participants discussed strategies in dealing with the prevailing and dominant economic policies that favor FDI. On this second day of the weekend seminar the focus was on trade unions' strategies as well as civil society's strategies.
The transformation to capitalism of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) during the last 15 years brought about significant pressures on public spending, in particular on social services, education, and health care. Matyas Benyik (Attac Hungary) pointed out that wages in Hungary are lagging behind, not only the EU average but also behind Hungary's economic performance itself. The gap of living standards to the old member states would not be closed soon. The European Union had been losing attractiveness among Hungarians, who are disappointed by the lack of solidarity in Western Europe. Following Benyik, "all those illusions are fading away."
The aim of Hungararian trade unions had been to catch up to the wages of Western European workers. They had not taken into account social dumping within the European Union, and had not developed strategies against it in time. The Hungarian trade union movement, so Benyik, was organizationally divided along political lines. In small companies and super markets, trade unions were practically non-existent. Benyik advocated pan-European wide trade union work in order to be able to challenge governments and private industries. The EU enlargement had been a trigger and catalyst for a closer cooperation in struggles for EU-wide wage-equality.
Michal Polák (Editor in Chief of "Slovo", a progressive Slovak weekly) provided insights into the Slovak debate on the labor code amendment. One of the main issues was the externalization of workers of formally self-employed. This privision, so Polák dates back to the days of state socialism.
In that era, self-employment had been a way to work outside the sphere of the state. After the transformation to capitalism, the company management had used this legal provision for new ends, externalizing the risks towards formally self-employed. The protections of the labour code would not apply to them.
Currently, argued Polák, the Slovak government would aim at changing the labor code. Its draft for a new legislation had tried to define dependent labor, and reduced this definition to a relationship between employers and employees. A second ambition was to forbid the recurring renewal of yearly period contracts. It had not come as a surprise, argued Polák, that employers had rejected the present propositions. As regards the enforcement of the proposals - in case the draft will be passed -, Polák was rather skeptical. Even in the Czech Republic, where the status as "self-employed employees" had been abolished by the Václav Klaus-administration, this phenomenon would still be common up to now. Although Polák characterized Slovak trade unions as weak and bureaucratic, he nevertheless interpreted their campaign as a success because it had brought the issue of workers' rights to the top of the political agenda.
Brigitte Kratzwald (Attac Austria) presented Attac Austria's proposals for alternative EU policies. She criticized the power of international companies whose demands had influenced European legislation directly by means of their lobbying activities. Since the formulation of the Lisbon agenda, so Kratzwald, competition had become even more center stage of the EU than before. She demanded a harmonization of tax rates between the EU-member states. Kratzwald mentioned four dimensions essential for the European Union: democratization, strengthening of public services and public goods, alternative economic policies, and, last but not least, the end of tax competition.
The following discussion focused on the question of lobbying at the European level. The lack of democratic structures within the European Union was generally perceived as a basic problem for emancipatory movements. The concentration of powers in the hands of the Commission would favor business lobby groups to the detriment of social movements. The participants held different views on the question whether it was legitimate for their action to make use of lobbying as well. While some regarded it a necessary tool to achieve one's goals in the light of corporate lobbying in Brussels, others rejected it due to its undemocratic character. One participant claimed Attac-groups in old member states be too diplomatic. Their demands concerning the European budget were "quite shy": "We cannot always be good friends with everyone".
Joachim Becker pointed out that there were certain parallels between the EU and the last phase of the Habsburg Empire. Both of them represented forms of a supranational statehood. Both had a customs and monetary union as their central plank, leaving other economic policies to lower levels of the state. The social order of both, so Becker, is characterized by competition – among nation states in the EU, among nationalities in the case of the Habsburg Empire. In the context of a low degree of supranational democracy and regionally highly uneven development, competition would favor centrifugal forces. These parallels had been rarely perceived. The question is, argued Becker, to what extent the EU could be democratized and EU-wide mechanisms containing competition and compensating inequalities could be instituted.
It became clear during the seminar that the present institutions and legal provisions of the EU leave very limited scope for regulating investment. These spaces would have to be explored and used but existing regulations would have to be changed. It was deemed necessary to build alliances for steps into that direction. These have to take existing uneven development into account, as participants of the seminar repeatedly pointed out. For example, tax cuts have been propagated as a means of attracting capital to peripheral regions. In that constellation, it might not be sufficient just to call for tax harmonization. The question of regional inequalities would have to be addressed as well. This would imply concrete measures like combining political demands for tax harmonization with a substantial increase of financial support in favor of peripheral regions.
Solidarity with the New EU Member States?
The transformation to capitalism of Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) during the last 15 years brought about significant pressures on public spending, in particular on social services, education, and health care. Matyas Benyik (Attac Hungary) pointed out that wages in Hungary are lagging behind, not only the EU average but also behind Hungary's economic performance itself. The gap of living standards to the old member states would not be closed soon. The European Union had been losing attractiveness among Hungarians, who are disappointed by the lack of solidarity in Western Europe. Following Benyik, "all those illusions are fading away."
The aim of Hungararian trade unions had been to catch up to the wages of Western European workers. They had not taken into account social dumping within the European Union, and had not developed strategies against it in time. The Hungarian trade union movement, so Benyik, was organizationally divided along political lines. In small companies and super markets, trade unions were practically non-existent. Benyik advocated pan-European wide trade union work in order to be able to challenge governments and private industries. The EU enlargement had been a trigger and catalyst for a closer cooperation in struggles for EU-wide wage-equality.
The Case of Slovakia: "Self-Employed Employees"
Michal Polák (Editor in Chief of "Slovo", a progressive Slovak weekly) provided insights into the Slovak debate on the labor code amendment. One of the main issues was the externalization of workers of formally self-employed. This privision, so Polák dates back to the days of state socialism.
In that era, self-employment had been a way to work outside the sphere of the state. After the transformation to capitalism, the company management had used this legal provision for new ends, externalizing the risks towards formally self-employed. The protections of the labour code would not apply to them.
Currently, argued Polák, the Slovak government would aim at changing the labor code. Its draft for a new legislation had tried to define dependent labor, and reduced this definition to a relationship between employers and employees. A second ambition was to forbid the recurring renewal of yearly period contracts. It had not come as a surprise, argued Polák, that employers had rejected the present propositions. As regards the enforcement of the proposals - in case the draft will be passed -, Polák was rather skeptical. Even in the Czech Republic, where the status as "self-employed employees" had been abolished by the Václav Klaus-administration, this phenomenon would still be common up to now. Although Polák characterized Slovak trade unions as weak and bureaucratic, he nevertheless interpreted their campaign as a success because it had brought the issue of workers' rights to the top of the political agenda.
Joint Action in a Common Europe
Brigitte Kratzwald (Attac Austria) presented Attac Austria's proposals for alternative EU policies. She criticized the power of international companies whose demands had influenced European legislation directly by means of their lobbying activities. Since the formulation of the Lisbon agenda, so Kratzwald, competition had become even more center stage of the EU than before. She demanded a harmonization of tax rates between the EU-member states. Kratzwald mentioned four dimensions essential for the European Union: democratization, strengthening of public services and public goods, alternative economic policies, and, last but not least, the end of tax competition.
The following discussion focused on the question of lobbying at the European level. The lack of democratic structures within the European Union was generally perceived as a basic problem for emancipatory movements. The concentration of powers in the hands of the Commission would favor business lobby groups to the detriment of social movements. The participants held different views on the question whether it was legitimate for their action to make use of lobbying as well. While some regarded it a necessary tool to achieve one's goals in the light of corporate lobbying in Brussels, others rejected it due to its undemocratic character. One participant claimed Attac-groups in old member states be too diplomatic. Their demands concerning the European budget were "quite shy": "We cannot always be good friends with everyone".
Joachim Becker pointed out that there were certain parallels between the EU and the last phase of the Habsburg Empire. Both of them represented forms of a supranational statehood. Both had a customs and monetary union as their central plank, leaving other economic policies to lower levels of the state. The social order of both, so Becker, is characterized by competition – among nation states in the EU, among nationalities in the case of the Habsburg Empire. In the context of a low degree of supranational democracy and regionally highly uneven development, competition would favor centrifugal forces. These parallels had been rarely perceived. The question is, argued Becker, to what extent the EU could be democratized and EU-wide mechanisms containing competition and compensating inequalities could be instituted.
It became clear during the seminar that the present institutions and legal provisions of the EU leave very limited scope for regulating investment. These spaces would have to be explored and used but existing regulations would have to be changed. It was deemed necessary to build alliances for steps into that direction. These have to take existing uneven development into account, as participants of the seminar repeatedly pointed out. For example, tax cuts have been propagated as a means of attracting capital to peripheral regions. In that constellation, it might not be sufficient just to call for tax harmonization. The question of regional inequalities would have to be addressed as well. This would imply concrete measures like combining political demands for tax harmonization with a substantial increase of financial support in favor of peripheral regions.
The author is a student of International Development and Arabic Studies at the University of Vienna
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