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The Future of European trade unions: searching strategic levers

Guy Van Gyes

WOW Trade Union Seminar, Billund, 01.02.2013

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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

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Overview presentation

• NO future of what?• Always a future• Challenges

– Logic of membership– Logic of influence

• Strategies– Ideas – instruments - organisation

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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)

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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• 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.

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ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE IN A LARGE NETWORK ORGANISATION

STORY OF LEGO1930s: a carpenter that makes woorden toysNow???

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Organisational development

• Movement or representative organisation– Empowerment– Project-based

• Demarcated in time; social; learning experience

• ‘limited’ forms of activism (task, specialism)– Community unionism

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Organisational development

• Professional organisation– Transnationalisation– Result-based management: evaluating results

not process– Social resource management– Innovation management: beyond creativity to

implementation– Mid-term planning

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TO CONCLUDE

• NEEDS ARE THERE• IT IS ABOUT RE-INVENT YOURSELF BY

STICKING TO YOUR CORE VALUES• NO SOLIDARITY WITHOUT A SENSE OF

COMMUNITY

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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

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SUCCESS IS 99% FAILURE(Honda quote; Cf. lego history)