New ’internal’ trade union set up in financial services sector

Up until now, employees in the financial services sector were represented by the two national trade unions and a sectoral trade union. During the last social elections in November 2003, the latter gained over half of the mandates for personnel representatives. However, in January 2008, a new trade union was established – the Independent Federation of Employees at Dexia – the sole purpose of which is to represent the interests of employees within the Dexia bank in Luxembourg.

Industrial relations in turmoil

Luxembourg’s financial services sector experienced a turbulent year in 2007. In particular, the social partners encountered many problems during negotiations on the renewal of the sector’s collective agreement (LU0707019I, LU0702079I, LU0701029I). In the end, only the Luxembourg Association of Bank and Insurance Employees (Association Luxembourgeoise des employés de banque et assurance, ALEBA) signed the renewal of the sectoral agreement with the Luxembourg Bankers’ Association (Association des banques et banquiers Luxembourg, ABBL) on 28 December 2007.

Although the two other trade unions – the Luxembourg Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Lëtzebuerger Chrëschtleche Gewerkschafts-Bond, LCGB) and the Luxembourg Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (Onofhängege Gewerkschaftsbond Lëtzebuerg, OGB-L) – condemned ALEBA’s unilateral action, the association declared that it had reluctantly taken the step to sign the agreement. Its main objective was to avoid the lack of a collective agreement in one of the key sectors of the country’s economy.

To date, tempers are fraying over the creation of a new trade union – the Independent Federation of Employees at Dexia (Fédération indépendante des employés Dexia Luxembourg, FieDEL). What is unusual about the newcomer is that it is internal to Luxembourg’s Dexia Bank (Dexia-Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, Dexia-BIL). The founders of the new trade union are former members of LCGB, which recently excluded them.

Towards a reform of trade unionism

The president of ALEBA, Marc Glesener, considers that this situation confirms the fact that some worker representatives have difficulties in working in harmony with their trade union organisation. His statement relates to the fact that some of the worker representatives who have now been excluded by LCGB had previously been members of ALEBA, before leaving to join LCGB.

For their part, FieDEL’s founders claim that the federation is a neutral and non-political employee organisation. In addition, they underline their wish for a renewed trade union movement in a rapidly changing world of finance. The interests of the sector’s employees can no longer be represented at the level of the sector as a whole. In the view of FieDEL’s leaders, a generalised common cause is ‘bound to settle on the lowest common denominator, which obviously suits the employers’. The difficulties which the traditional trade unions encountered when negotiating the renewal of the sector’s collective agreement have also added fuel to the arguments of FieDEL’s leaders. They believe that it is time to break with the traditional approaches of trade unionism and highlight the ‘archaic’ operational model of the large central trade unions. FiedDEL wishes ‘to give employees a chance to have their say, in order to establish true social democracy in companies’. However, it is not yet clear which position the new trade union organisation will take in the world of industrial relations, as its plans remain vague at present.

FieDEL’s role in next employee representative elections

The next social elections of employee representatives will be held in November 2008 and the electoral campaign has already started. With a level of membership fee comparable to that of ALEBA, although still far less than those of LCGB and OGB-L, FieDEL could represent a serious rival to the traditional trade unions.

However, some observers believe that the establishment of the new trade union organisation is more about money than any real desire to renew Luxembourg’s trade union movement. One of LCGB’s internal regulations stipulates that worker representatives on administrative boards of companies must pass on their share of company profits to the general trade union revenue. The former members of LCGB who now sit on the joint committee at Dexia-BIL apparently refused to comply with this rule, which is why they were excluded from LCGB.

Some observers view the establishment of this company-level trade union as setting a dangerous precedent in the field of industrial relations, as it may weaken the position of employees and further complicate industrial relations in the financial services sector. Conversely, other experts play down the significance of a new trade union in the sector, since they regard it as a non-event and believe that the organisation will fail to survive in the next social elections due to a lack of credibility.

Odette Wlodarski, Prevent