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Metalworking, with over 1 million employees, is a key sector in the Spanish economy, and also the industry where collective bargaining plays the most important role. This feature outlines the views of the metalworking sectoral federation of the CC.OO trade union confederation on the industry's situation in 2002, and its proposals for future developments in areas such as collective bargaining. Among other demands. CC.OO wants a proper government industrial policy, a national sectoral collective agreement and greater harmonisation of employment conditions across Europe.
This article examines the views of the Metalworking Federation (Federación Minerometalúrgica) of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) on the situation in the Spanish metalworking sector, and the prospects for collective bargaining, in 2002. It is based on interviews with an official of the federation and on internal documents.
The position of the sector
For the purposes of CC.OO, the metalworking sector includes the following subsectors: shipbuilding; steelmaking and processing; the automotive sector; telecommunications equipment and network manufacturing (telephone operators are covered by the CC.OO Transport Federation[Federación del Transporte]); information and communications technology (ICT) equipment manufacturing; manufacturing of metal components (almost always carried out by small companies); and car repair workshops and car dealers with workshops.
The 1980s and 1990s saw a major restructuring of the metalworking sector in Spain, leading to a reduction in the size of companies. The shipbuilding (ES9912268F) and steelmaking sector underwent drastic restructuring from around 1984. However, the process seems to be coming to an end and this sector is now well consolidated, with employment showing a slight tendency towards growth. The steelmaking sector, which was previously of great importance, is now a minor force. The recently-emerged ICT sector has achieved a high level of employment but is now facing a worldwide crisis, and the situation is worse in Spain due to the partial relocation of some businesses from the country (ES0209206N, ES0201205F and ES0104240F). The automotive sector, with a major presence of multinationals, maintains its volume of employment, and a subsector of auxiliary and components industries is growing around it (TN0008201S).
The tendency towards an international division of labour seems to indicate that there will be movements of capital in the metalworking sector, whereby 'semi-peripheral' countries (such as those in Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Asia or North Africa) will take over some industrial activities if they meet certain requirements in terms of qualification levels, labour costs, infrastructures and physical proximity.
Other major metalworking countries in Europe apply a strategy to ensure that their industry has an advanced technological level. They specialise in products of greater added value, maintaining a higher degree of development in their industry than that of countries which have lower-technology production. Spain, with an intermediate technological level and low labour costs, may have problems competing either with the technologically advanced countries or with those that have even lower labour costs. CC.OO considers this debate to be crucial for Spain, and wishes to place the country in the top rank of metalworking nations through policies of investment in research, development and innovation, industrial design etc, helping it to compete in this area.
The strategy of large corporate groups seems to be oriented towards specialisation, for example in the case of shipbuilding. International mergers and concentrations are also taking place, for instance in the steel sector, where mergers have resulted from a strategy of investment and specialisation in products - notably the 2001 merger of Aceralia (Spain), Usinor (France) and Arbed (Luxembourg) to form Arcelor (BE0104344F). The aim is to have a strong domestic industry in order to compete with the major US multinationals and obtain a good position in Europe.
Smaller local companies also play an important role in Spanish metalworking, accounting for about 70% of the volume of employment in the sector. According to CC.OO, the state and public sector plays a very important role in providing the basis for the development of industry, and the union believes that the establishment of a public industrial policy is important. It is seen as problematic, therefore, that there is no longer a Ministry of Industry in Spain, though the Ministry of Science and Technology has taken on few of its former responsibilities.
Overall, the Spanish metalworking sector is facing a slowdown in foreign demand and uncertainty about the depth of the recession in the USA and its effects on the largest European economies, Germany and France. In 2001 (up until October) industrial production in Spanish metalworking fell by 1.5% in comparison with the figure for 2000, though it was still 5% higher than in 1999. It should be borne in mind that 2000 was unusual in its exceptionally high production levels. It appears that, except for the ICT subsector, the subsectors of the metalworking sector are not undergoing as intense a restructuring process as is generally thought.
Table 1. Level of industrial production in metalworking sectors, annual % change,
| . | All metalworking | Metallurgy | Capital goods | Transport materials |
| 1999 | 1.4 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 3.0 |
| 2000 | 6.6 | 4.9 | 6.6 | 8.1 |
| 2001 (first three quarter) | -1.5 | -2.3 | -1.7 | -0.6 |
Source: Author's composition based on CC.OO Metalworking Federation data.
Employment levels
In total, the number of workers in the metalworking sector can be estimated at 1,050,000 (a figure agreed by the CONFEMETAL employers' organisation). The official statistics - see below - do not always include up-to-date information on companies, and many companies fail to fill in the relevant forms, even though it is compulsory. In practice, 99% of the sector's workers are covered by collective agreements - metalworking is thus the sector with Spain's highest rate of bargaining coverage.
Table 2. Paid employment in the metalworking sectors, 1998-2001
| . | Total (all metalworking) | Permanent (all metalworking) | Temporary (all metalworking) | Metallurgy | Capital goods | Transport materials |
| 1998 | 857,200 | 623,800 | 233,400 | 302,800 | 306,800 | 247,600 |
| 1999 | 897,800 | 651,500 | 246,300 | 326,900 | 315,900 | 255,000 |
| 2000 | 940,200 | 683,700 | 256,500 | 342,900 | 324,900 | 272,400 |
| 2001 (3rd quarter) | 952,800 | 718,300 | 234,500 | 342,900 | 336,600 | 273,300 |
Source: EPA Survey of the Active Population, National Institute of Statistics.
The general tendency seems to be that, although the slowdown in industry has reduced profits, it has not involved overall reductions in the level of employment, except among temporary workers - see table 3 below. The temporary employment rate in the sector (24.6% of all employment, according to the EPA Survey of the Active Population) is significantly lower than the national average (about 32%), though still higher than the EU average.
Table 3. Wage earners in the metalworking sector, change on previous year, 1999-2001 (2nd quarter of each year)
| . | Permanent | Temporary |
| 1999 | 14,300 | 22,800 |
| 2000 | 14,900 | 24,700 |
| 2001 | 48,300 | -20,400 |
Source: Author's composition based on CC.OO Metalworking Federation data.
Women's employment in metalworking has been increasing in recent years, as indicated by table 4 below.
Table 4. Annual average number of female wage earners in metalworking, 1999-2001
| . | No. of women wage earners |
| 1999 | 109,300 |
| 2000 | 136,000 |
| 2001 (3rd quarter) | 145,000 |
Source: Author's composition based on CC.OO Metalworking Federation and INE data.
Wages and labour costs
According to CC.OO, many employers are still tempted to see the comparatively low level of Spanish wages in EU terms as a competitive advantage. Real pay in Spanish metalworking increased slightly in 2001 (see table 5 below), while industrial hourly labour costs rose faster than the average for the 12 countries of the single currency 'euro-zone' (see table 6 below). However, Spain still has good production and productivity ratios and, according to CC.OO, wages are about 24% lower than the average of the most industrialised countries in the EU. Working time is also slightly higher.
Table 5. Agreed pay in metalworking sector and Consumer Prices Index, annual % change, 1998-2001
| . | Agreed pay | CPI |
| 1998 | 2.8 | 1.4 |
| 1999 | 2.5 | 2.9 |
| 2000 | 3.8 | 4.0 |
| 2001 | 3.7 | 2.3 |
Source: Author's composition based on CC.OO Metalworking Federation data.
Table 6. Nominal hourly labour costs in industry, annual % change, 1998-2001
| . | Spain | Euro-zone |
| 1998 | 2.1 | 1.5 |
| 1999 | 2.7 | 2.3 |
| 2000 | 3.3 | 3.4 |
| 2001 | 3.4 | 2.8 |
Source: CC.OO, based on Eurostat data.
Social partner relations
The Spanish Confederation of Metal Industries (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales del Metal, CONFEMETAL) is the overall employers' organisation for the metalworking sector, affiliated to the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations (Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales, CEOE). Other important employers' associations are the National Association of the Electronics and Telecommunications Industry (Asociación Nacional de Industrias Electrónicas y de Telecomunicaciones, ANIEL) and the Spanish Association of Automobile and Lorry Manufacturers (Asociación Española de Fabricantes de Automóviles y Camiones, ANFAC).
CONFEMETAL is organised mainly on a provincial level, with local member associations which negotiate collective agreements for individual provinces. This causes problems with dialogue between unions and employers at national level. Nevertheless, the trade unions mainly have relations with CONFEMETAL. CC.OO has long called for the creation of a general national collective agreement for the sector, which has so far not been achieved (ES9805153F). However, there are national agreements in metalworking on specific issues such as health and safety, training, resolving disputes out of court, infringements and penalties, and recruitment. There have also been attempts to create general sectoral collective agreements for metalworking at the regional level (ES0007297N).
CC.OO's main objectives for the sector
CC.OO's main priorities for the metalworking sector include the following:
- to consolidate European trade union structures in order to establish bargaining criteria with a view to standardising conditions in the sector, with minimum pay and maximum working time across Europe (EU0108241F);
- to make progress towards the better articulation of the structure of collective bargaining (eg between national, regional, provincial and company levels), including the negotiation of a national sectoral agreement for metalworking, replacing the current 'excessive' decentralisation;
- to maintain and increase employment and improve its stability, limiting and reducing temporary employment, and obtaining commitments on the proper use of various types of employment contract according to the characteristics of particular jobs;
- to maintain and increase workers' purchasing power through collective bargaining, though without using up the margins available for creating employment - an approach based on the national intersectoral agreement laying down guidelines for bargaining in 2002, agreed by the central social partner organisations in December 2001 (ES0201207F). CC.OO will also seek to ensure that collective agreements include wage revision and guarantee clauses, allowing for pay to be adjusted upwards in the event of higher than expected inflation;
- to reduce working hours, with the objective of a 35-hour week;
- to increase the trade unions' capacity for intervention and participation in all areas affecting work organisation; and
- to reach an agreement on training with the Ministry of Labour, in order to reorganise qualifications and training policies in the sector.
Commentary
The Spanish metalworking industry is currently facing a process of privatisation, concentration, subcontracting, and incorporation of transnational capital. Furthermore, the formation of certain private monopolies may affect the development of the sector. The government no longer has an industrial policy, and it may be important to make up for this deficit. As the trade unions also propose for other sectors, the broad lines of industrial policy for metalworking should be considered on a European scale, because this is a strategic sector with regard to international industrial planning, and indeed also with regard to the potential cross-border standardisation of employment conditions. (Daniel Albarracín, CIREM Foundation)