Western and eastern European metalworkers' unions establish interregional bargaining policy network

In March 1999, metalworking trade unions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia adopted a joint memorandum on interregional collective bargaining policy. In the document, the unions declare their political will to prevent possible wage dumping strategies through closer coordination of bargaining in the countries involved. The initiative follows a recent resolution from the European Metalworkers' Federation, which aims to establish regional cross-border bargaining networks among its affiliates.

The European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) - which represents about 7 million workers within affiliated 55 trade unions in 25 European countries - has long argued that the steadily increasing economic integration of Europe must be accompanied by a Europeanisation of collective bargaining. The introduction of EU Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) has, for EMF, made this need even more urgent. In December 1998, therefore, the EMF adopted a political resolution on "collective bargaining with the euro", which for the first time contained a number of guiding principles for national collective bargaining, in order to prevent downward competition on wages and working conditions (DE9812283F). The core of the resolution was the adoption of a "European coordination rule" which states that national collective agreements should seek at least to offset the rate of inflation and to ensure that employees' income reflects a balanced participation in productivity gains.

EMF also recognises that new institutional innovations which allow for closer transnational trade union cooperation are needed to ensure the success of this new "European coordination rule". A strategy has been developed of establishing regional cross-border collective bargaining networks among EMF's affiliated unions. Following the adoption of the resolution in December 1998, EMF set the goal that "the Europe-wide expansion of these networks should be completed in the course of the following two years".

However, only a very few cross-border union bargaining networks have so far been set up in metalworking. Probably the most prominent example is the cooperation between Belgian and Dutch metalworkers' unions and the Northrhine-Westphalia district organisation of the German IG Metall union. This initiative started in 1997 with the exchange of trade union observers during collective bargaining in the steel industry (DE9707223N) and was continued in the 1998 and 1999 metalworking bargaining rounds of the three countries involved.

Interregional network of west and east European metalworkers' unions

On 25 March 1999, EMF invited its affiliates from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia to a meeting in Vienna in order to discuss the possibilities for regional cooperation on bargaining policy. The unions participating at the meeting were:

• the Austrian Metals, Mining and Energy Trade Union (Gewerkschaft Metall-Bergbau-Energie, GMBE);

• the German Metalworkers' Trade Union (IG Metall);

• the Metalworkers' Federation of the Czech Republic (KOVO);

• the Metalworkers' Federation of Slovakia (KOVO);

• the Metalworkers' Union of Slovenia (Sindikat Kovinske in Elektroindustrije, SKEI); and

• the Trade Union of the Hungarian Iron, Metal-Working and Electrical Energy Workers (VASAS)

The result of the meeting was that all the unions involved adopted a joint "memorandum on interregional collective bargaining policy", which provides for the establishment of a new "trade union cooperation network".

The memorandum starts with an analysis of the new European framework conditions for collective bargaining and emphasises the need for close transnational coordination of national unions' bargaining policy, by confirming the EMF European coordination rule, as follows (English text provided by EMF):

A central point of orientation and yardstick of trade union wage policy must be compensation for the rate of inflation and an equally weighted share for workers' wages in productivity increases. The obligation of maintaining purchasing power and equal participation in increases in productivity represent the new European coordination rules for collective bargaining in the European metalworking economy as a whole. The trade unions are maintaining their complete economy and bearing the entire responsibility for this, just as they are using their distributional latitude to improve wages/salaries and employment, for a shortening of working time and for retraining to obtain qualification, for new work organisation and special benefits such as, for example, early retirement and measures to secure pensions.

On the establishment of an interregional trade union cooperation network, the memorandum determines the following fields of action:

• at least once a year, the unions concerned will meet for a mutual exchange of information on national economic, socio-political and labour market conditions and developments, and on unions' collective bargaining policy;

• in between the annual meetings, there should be a permanent exchange of information on a bilateral level (for example, the IG Metall district organisation in Bavaria and its Czech counterpart have already had this kind of information network for several years);

• there should be regular exchanges of trade union observers during regional and/or national collective bargaining rounds;

• in the event of strikes and industrial action, information should be communicated rapidly to other unions, which will pre-empt all attempts at strike-breaking and give support to the striking union when available; and

• trade union information networks should be established at the level of companies which operate internationally, and European Works Councils (EWC s) should become integrated in the interregional trade union cooperation network.

To sum up, the principal aims of all the unions involved are that: close cross-border cooperation "should be expanded at all levels and in all forms; activities promoting solidarity should be strengthened; and all opportunities to engage in a common dialogue should be sought and made use of".

Regarding EWCs, the unions expressed their will to work for:

• "a requirement that plants and enterprises in eastern European countries be included and allowed to participate in EWC meetings, which often already occurs on a voluntary basis"; and

• "the extension of the EU Directive on EWCs to cover countries immediately after they conclude negotiations to enter the European Union".

Finally, the memorandum also expresses the unions' support for the demands of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia to become a member of the European Union. In the unions' view, however, a strong system of industrial relations and collective agreements is in these countries needed to guarantee balanced economic and social development. The new interregional cooperation is therefore also seen as a contribution to supporting the eastern European countries "in attaining the level of working and living conditions of their more developed European neighbours over the medium and long term".

Commentary

Following the introduction of EWCs, the current establishment of interregional trade union collective bargaining cooperation networks can be seen as a further important innovation in European industrial relations. In particular, the mutual exchange of trade union observers during national bargaining rounds - which in some cases may even include participation at the negotiating table - seems to be a very appropriate way of demonstrating a "European dimension" in national bargaining. For the unions, it gives the opportunity to build cross-border cooperation on a broader basis and to integrate it into the normal collective bargaining process.

EMF is certainly one of the pioneers in pushing towards a Europeanisation of collective bargaining. The new initiative by the Austrian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Slovakian and Slovenian metalworkers' unions makes it clear that such a strategy will not stop at the borders of the "richer countries" of the European Union or within the even smaller territory of the single currency "euro-zone". On the contrary, a Europeanisation of bargaining will reach its goal of a solidaristic development of wages and working conditions only when it covers the whole of Europe. (Thorsten Schulten, Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI))