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The Future of European trade unions: searching strategic levers. Guy Van Gyes WOW Trade Union Seminar, Billund , 01.02.2013. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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The Future of European trade unions: searching strategic levers
Guy Van Gyes
WOW Trade Union Seminar, Billund, 01.02.2013
2
Well, it’s sundown on the unionAnd what’s made in the U.S.A.Sure was a good idea’Til greed got in the way
1983, Bob Dylan, Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/union-sundown#ixzz2JXe93ccb
3
Overview presentation
• NO future of what?• Always a future• Challenges
– Logic of membership– Logic of influence
• Strategies– Ideas – instruments - organisation
4
WHAT IS EUROPEAN TRADE UNIONISM?
Definition
• Free association of workers– Workers decide freely to be member or not– Independance from the employer
• Defense of common interests• Durable (not ad-hoc)
5
Representative
• Economic democratisation - Institutionalisation• Recognition – powers attributed in the interest of the
company, economy, general interest. • Intermediating organisations (Muller-Jentsch)
– Organisations in the civil society between on the one hand business and politics and on the other hand the lifeworld of the workers, members and rank-and-file
– They articulate and aggregate the interests of diverse groups of workers and social classes (milieux)
6
Link to the European social model
• Social welfare rights
• Economic citizenship
• Reducedincome inequality
• Limiting working time
• Enhancingsocial cohesion
Joint-governance
Workplace democracy
Wage bargaining
Statutoryregulation
Social concertation
Social movementunionism
Workplacerepresentation
Dividing the pie (productivity gains)
Working timereductions
Social pacts
EUROPEAN SOCIAL MODEL
SOCIAL DIALOGUE PROCESSES
TRADE UNIONS ROLES
Diversity in unity
• Industrial relations context– Organised – disorganised– State intervention – voluntarism– Conflictual or not
• Cleavages– Religious-political– Occupational-sectoral– Radical - Moderate
Disorganised, non-conflictual
Low organised, low conflict, low state
Medium organised, high state, high conflict
High organised, state intervention, low conflict
High organised, medium conflict, low state
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ALWAYS A FUTURE
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Employment relationship = inherently contradictions
ECONOMIC EXCHANGE POWER
RELATIONSHIP
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Paradox of a bright futureNeed for unions % Agree
ESS 2003 70%
EB 1996 66%
EB 1984 53%
A great deal – quite a lot
Not at all
1981 34 25
1990 41 14
1999 48 10
2008 56 7
Trust in trade union
European Values Study15 to 29 years old, workers, Belgium
Six countries: BE, DE, UK, IT, NL, FR
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Trade union membership in Europe: 1970-2010
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010*0.0
20.0
40.0
60.0
80.0
100.0
120.0
140.0
160.0
AustriaBelgiumDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyIrelandItalyLuxembourgNetherlandsPortugalSpainSwedenUnited Kingdom
Union membership 100=1970
Key findings trade union membership in Europe
• 25 to 30% of the employees• Large differences between the Member States• Lower density in large countries• Trend clearly downward: 10-15 years ago one in
3, now 1 in 4– Dramatic losses Eastern Europe– Considerable losses: AT, IE, PT, DE, EL– Limited or stable: BE, DK, FIN, FR, IT, NL, ES, SE
Two contrasting groups of union membership probability in Europe
1. Young workers (age -30), female, part-time, temporary contract, service sector (sales, hotels & restaurants, transport), micro-plant
3% Without union at workplace: 1%
2. Worker above 30 years, male, full-time, open-ended contract, public sector (administration, health & social services), larger establishment
56% With union at workplace: 65%
Weighted ESS survey data
Trade union participation: lessons from research
• No problem of ‘sympathy’ nor ‘legitimacy’• Matter of social interaction/exchange
– Being asked?• Coverage of union at the workplace• Flexible, peripheral workforce• Key moment – entrance in the labour
market – more blurred transition– No choice for ever; but deliberate choice
=> importance of retention management
Trade union participation: lessons from research
• Foremost: matter of instrumentality– Wat want workers from a union
• Support for an individual problem• Improvement of job quality (labour conditions first)
– Efficiency: obtaining something, more than once• Dissatisfaction with work situation not a necessary nor a
sufficient condition– Complex cost-benefit calculation
• Union can do something about it and not somebody else (unique selling position)
• Union can often do something about it• My membership/participation is a useful contribution to the fact that the union
can do something about it (free-riding problem)
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CHALLENGES
Two sides of the same coin
• Logic of influence: How we defend our interests? How we try to influence the counterparty?– Collective bargaining– Information and consultation at the workplace – co-
determination– Political lobbying and campaigning– Individual service and help (mutual aid)– Social movement
• Logic of membership/particpation: How we assemble the workers? How we built and strengthen the rank-and-file?– Sensibilisation– Organising– Mobilising
Logic of membership: individualisation
De Belgische vakbondsbasisUitdagingen en oplossingen
Upskilling Secularisation
EXPRESSIVEINDIVIDUALISM
Self-determination Hedonism
GENERATION Y: WORK TO LIVETALENT DEVELOPMENT – EMPOWERMENT
INTRINSIC BESIDES EXTRINSIC JOB MOTIVATIONS
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Colouring of social classes
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Logic of influence
• Globalisation• Financialisation
– => Neo-liberal hegemonyDominant economic policy system
Monetarism (combating inflation)
Economic context High unemployment Competitive capitalism (international competition)
Monetary system Non-accommodating Wage bargaining system Supply-side wage moderation
- lowering comparative labour costs; enhancing wage flexibility; anticipatory - income policy, setting inflation targets
Bargaining mode Voluntary co-ordination by peak organisations or pattern setting
Predominant bargaining level
Organised decentralisation with sectoral level usually prevailing
Predominant interest Employers: competitive and flexible wages
De Belgische vakbondsbasisUitdagingen en oplossingen
Changes in working lives• Growing flexibilisation
– Peripheral workforce– Variable pay– Non-universal, occupational social security
• Work intensification and work pressure– Performance management – control culture– Combination pressure (work – family life)
• Job insecurity– Burn-out– More transition (20s – 40s)
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STRATEGIC LEVERS
Words – LogosAction instruments – PraxisOrganisation
25
Logos – Collective action frame
• Frame = interpretative schemata that signifies and condenses the ‘world out there’ by selectively punctuating
• ‘Bridging schemata’• European – transition management to a more durable society
• ‘Not everything is for sale’• LOHAS: Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability
• Left is only succesfull when a positive, new alternative is put forward
26
Instruments – logic of membership
• New instrumentalities – union services– Want it all - Smart combining work and life – organising
transitions– Wants to be in the driver seat – organising self-efficacy– Fun job/too much fun – mental health issues– Restructuring all the time – skill development; warning
(career coaching)– Loves to talk - personal approach/transparancy/let
have a say– Time too short – quick service– Always choice – no one standard package
27
Instruments – logic of membership
• Institutions matter– Unemployment insurance; role in new risk
management– Low fee (subsidising by others)– Monopolistic presence at the workplace– Defend public service– Centralised collective bargaining
Instruments – Logic of influence
• Multi-level: transnationale level(cf. Eurozone)
• Multi-stakeholder context; Conflict between Old (economy) – New (ecology)
• From industrial to innovation economy
29
• Transnational wage policy– Coordination exist already (only without the union and narrow-
based; German wage leadership)• Taking wages out of competition = solidaristic wage policy loonstructuur• “uses a deliberate, centrally force to counteract … the centrifugal force
of the market, i.e. its tendency towards wage differentiation• Demand-driven economic growth
MORELESS
Employer TradeUnion Employer Trade
Union
Change management in a business strategy geared to innovation
Work organisation Labour conditions
Bargaining Dialogue
Workplace representation: focus on ‘working smarter’ not ‘harder’
Conceptual difference
Dialogue on work Bargaining
Starting point Problem-driven Interest-driven
Goal Decision Contract
Climate Co-operative Competitive
Method Discussion Pressure
Being more a Movement organisation
• A complex and formal organisation that sets its goals in accordance with the preferences of a social movement or countermovement.
• An ideological programme: an organisational discourse whereby ‘good’ arguments are formulated to question a given order.
• Two pillars– A representational organisation: a set or bodies and rules,
formalised in statutes, to structure the ‘representative’ decision-making process.
– Professional or administrative organisation: administrative apparatus; a not-for-profit organisation of union professionals.
32
33
ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE IN A LARGE NETWORK ORGANISATION
STORY OF LEGO1930s: a carpenter that makes woorden toysNow???
34
Organisational development
• Movement or representative organisation– Empowerment– Project-based
• Demarcated in time; social; learning experience
• ‘limited’ forms of activism (task, specialism)– Community unionism
35
Organisational development
• Professional organisation– Transnationalisation– Result-based management: evaluating results
not process– Social resource management– Innovation management: beyond creativity to
implementation– Mid-term planning
36
TO CONCLUDE
• NEEDS ARE THERE• IT IS ABOUT RE-INVENT YOURSELF BY
STICKING TO YOUR CORE VALUES• NO SOLIDARITY WITHOUT A SENSE OF
COMMUNITY
37
TO CONCLUDE
Positive economic
alternative
‘Bridging’ mobilising
slogans
More social movement
Transnational solidaristic
wage coordination
Local partnership for smarter
work
New risk services
Professional learning network
organisation
38
SUCCESS IS 99% FAILURE(Honda quote; Cf. lego history)