The European Trade Union Committee for Education: Opening the Door to Social Dialogue

"The European Industry Committees are receiving increasing attention because of their crucial role in the Social Dialogue within the European Union, which was strengthened by provisions of the Single European Act. Yet much of their work remains undocumented and inaccessible to the general public. This paper concentrates on the policies and programmes of one of the two Industry Committees operating in the public sector, the European Trade Union Committee for Education. Workers in education, like those in the public sector more generally, were excluded from many of the provisions of the Treaty of Rome because of their special status as state functionaries; education itself, like many other public services, was considered the proper concern of Member States and lay outside the competence of the European Community. This has never prevented trade unions in education from acting at the European level, however, and new provisions of the Treaty of Maastricht have widened opportunities for their common action within Europe and a more significant role in social dialogue." (author's abstract)"Mit der Einheitlichen Europäischen Akte gewannen die Europäische (Industrie) Gewerkschaftsausschüsse für ihre Rolle im sozialen Dialoge der Europäischen Union zunehmend an Bedeutung. Allerdings ist ihre Tätigkeit immer noch wenig dokumentiert und für die Öffentlichkeit zugänglich. Die vorliegende Studie behandelt einen der beiden Ausschüsse, die im öffentlichen Sektor angesiedelt sind, und zwar das Europäisches Gewerkschaftskomitee für Bildung und Wissenschaft. Beschäftigte im öffentlichen Dienst bzw Arbeitnehmer im Erziehungswesen sind aufgrund ihres besonderen Dienstverhältnisses von den EU-Mitgliedsstaaten als spezielle Arbeitnehmergruppe angesehen wurde und von vielen Regelungen der Römer Verträge ausgeschlossen. Dies hat allerdings die Gewerkschaften der Bildungsarbeitnehmer nicht davon abgehalten, auf der europäischen Ebene aktiv zu werden. Hierfür haben die Regulungen des Masstrichter Vertrages nicht nur eine bessere Voraussetzung geschaffen, sondern die Gewerkschaften der Bildungsarbeitnehmer können, mehr als zuvor, nun aktiv am sozialen Dialoge teilnehmen." (Autorenreferat

What about the workers: the implications of Brexit for British and European labour'

In June 2016, a small majority of voters called for Britain to leave the EU. In this article we discuss the referendum itself and the form which Brexit may take. It has become clear that the current UK government is committed to a ‘hard’ Brexit which will rupture most existing ties with the EU. While much uncertainty remains, there are alarming indications that ‘regaining sovereignty’ – a key slogan of the Brexit campaign – will translate into abject subservience to the most erratic right-wing US administration in history. We examine the implications of Brexit for labour rights in general and for British trade union participation in European Works Councils in particular: there are many reasons for apprehension. We assess the economic and political fall-out, and end by exploring possible consequences for international trade union solidarity in Europe. In general, trade union policy-makers in Europe are committed to resisting ‘divide-and-rule’ strategies by employers, but there will undoubtedly be tensions

In search of global labour markets

In this introductory article, the Guest Editors consider key themes involved in discussion of cross-border labour migration, exploring the ambiguities of some of the main concepts involved. They summarise the six substantive articles which follow, and identify some major topics for further research

Resisting labour market insecurity: old and new actors, rivals or allies?

In most of the world, work has usually been precarious. For several decades, however, greater employment security was achieved in the developed economies. These gains have been increasingly eroded by neoliberal globalisation. We focus on Western Europe to examine whether trade unions are merely protectors of the remaining labour market ‘insiders’, or whether they can also represent the interests of the growing numbers of ‘outsiders’. We also examine the role of ‘new’ social movements in mobilising against insecurity. Our reflections end by considering whether and how the two modes of response offered by trade unions and social movements may be integrated

(How) can international trade union organisations be democratic?

International trade union organisations, like unions at national level, commonly affirm their commitment to internal democracy. But what does this mean? There exists a vast literature on union democracy, addressing the questions whether democracy in trade unions is desirable; whether it is possible; and if so, how it can be achieved. However, the focus of analysis is almost exclusively at the national (or sub-national) level, with the premise that union members are individual workers. But international unions (like many national confederations indeed) do not have individual workers as members: they are organisations of organisations. What does this imply for our understanding of union democracy? We begin our article by summarising the broader literature on union democracy, then develop an interpretation of international unions as ‘meta-organisations’. We next explore some of the implications for debates on democracy at international level, and end by asking whether theories of deliberative democracy can help in understanding the options for international union democracy

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions : structure, ideology and capacity to act

This thesis shows the ways in which the strategies and tactics of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) have evolved, in response to changes in the world economy and society and as part of the development of an international industrial relations system. It uses a series of cases to examine key features of the organisation and to show how it has responded to important challenges. These include: the creation of a separate European trade union organisation and the nature of the ICFTU's relation to it; the relations and the search for unity between the ICFTU and its Christian rival, the WCL; the campaign against apartheid in South Africa and violations of human rights in Chile and other countries; the rise of women's participation and representation within the world body, and most importantly, the development of the international trade union movement's campaign against the multinational corporations and around the theme of 'globalisation'. I conclude that the ICFTU is constrained on all sides as an organisation - through limited independent powers of action, disunity among its affiliates, the decline in the membership and influences of national unions, the scarcity of resources, and other factors - but that it has been able to act effectively under certain circumstances and when certain key conditions are met, such as the willingness to act among affiliated unions that was built up around the problem of apartheid, or the leading role played by the confederation in promoting women's equality

Resisting labour market insecurity: old and new actors, rivals or allies?

In most of the world, work has usually been precarious. For several decades, however, greater employment security was achieved in the developed economies. These gains have been increasingly eroded by neoliberal globalisation. We focus on Western Europe to examine whether trade unions are merely protectors of the remaining labour market ‘insiders’, or whether they can also represent the interests of the growing numbers of ‘outsiders’. We also examine the role of ‘new’ social movements in mobilising against insecurity. Our reflections end by considering whether and how the two modes of response offered by trade unions and social movements may be integrated

In search of global labour markets

In this introductory article, the Guest Editors consider key themes involved in discussion of cross-border labour migration, exploring the ambiguities of some of the main concepts involved. They summarise the six substantive articles which follow, and identify some major topics for further research

Democracy in trade unions, democracy through trade unions?

Since the Webbs published Industrial Democracy at the end of the nineteenth century, the principle that workers have a legitimate voice in decision-making in the world of work – in some versions through trade unions, in others at least formally through separate representative structures – has become widely accepted in most west European countries. There is now a vast literature on the strengths and weaknesses of such mechanisms, and we review briefly some of the key interpretations of the rise (and fall) of policies and structures for workplace and board-level representation. We also discuss the mainly failed attempts to establish broader processes of economic democracy, which the eclipse of nationally specific mechanisms of class compromise makes again a salient demand. Economic globalization also highlights the need for transnational mechanisms to achieve worker voice (or more radically, control) in the dynamics of capital-labour relations. We therefore examine the role of trade unions in coordinating pressure for a countervailing force at European and global levels, and in the construction of (emergent?) supranational industrial relations. However, many would argue that unions cannot win legitimacy as democratizing force unless manifestly democratic internally. We therefore revisit debates on and dilemmas of democracy within trade unions, and examine recent initiatives to enhance democratization