Political Resolution
As adopted by the 2ndindustriAll Europe Congress on 8th June 2016
Much of Europe is still going through a period of economic stagnation and social regression in which unemployment (especially youth unemployment) is far too high, wealth inequality within and between EU countries is rising, working conditions are deteriorating and poverty is increasing. Almost one in four Europeans is at risk of poverty; young people, women, migrants and pensioners are particularly concerned in alarming proportions. This is unacceptable.
The austerity policies and structural reforms put in place to tackle the crisis, and which were supposed to restore the competitiveness of the Member States, have failed and have led to more social hardship. These ideology- and interest-driven measures are putting pressure on many Member States, which are suffering from an unprecedented attack on wages, social protection and workers’ and trade union rights. These attacks have led to an increase in precarious employment, pay cuts, flexibility and insecurity for workers. National and European austerity measures are reducing purchasing power and have a negative impact on consumption, employment and a fair distribution of income and wealth. These measures are fundamentally unpicking the very fabric of the European social model, including collective bargaining systems, social security systems and individual and collective social rights, to the detriment of workers, citizens and social cohesion.
These policies are making it harder to achieve economic recovery based on increased purchasing power, investment, increased productivity, and competition between businesses driven by technological and social innovation. They lead to downward competition between companies based on social dumping. The social impact of the current austerity policy is immense. This leads to mass unemployment and to a deterioration in living conditions - not just within the eurozone but right across Europe. These policies are in line with the objectives of capital: the individualisation of industrial relations via the weakening of collective regulations and trade unions in most countries and not only in the south of Europe.
Austerity policies are tearing Europe apart and creating divisions between prosperous and stagnating EU countries. They are forcing workers between and within countries into competition with each other, which is detrimental to all of them. The desperation of many workers in the countries that are most severely affected leads to migration of citizens in search of temporary or permanent employment in other EU countries and outside the regulated labour market, creating a situation of forced mobility rather than the desired freedom of movement.
The failure of the political establishment to tackle social instability is driving many European citizens away from core democratic and solidarity values and from the European project. IndustriAll Europe is resolutely opposed to the European-wide rise of xenophobic, nationalist, anti-European forces and right-wing extremism.
EU policymakers cannot ignore the risks and dangers of their policy of austerity. We urgently need a Europe that is once more based on the core European values such as democratic, economic and social progress, environmentalsustainablilityas well as solidarity and equality.
With internal walls rising, the right to free movement and the Schengen agreement are under attack, undermining the basis on which the EU was founded. Freedom of movement must be guaranteed to all people within the EU.
The terrible suffering of those who seek refuge fleeing poverty, war and persecution requires a European response based on humanity, solidarity and inclusion. IndustriAll Europe urges Europe and the EU Member States to overcome divisions and nationalism and come up with a joint response to this humanitarian emergency instead of turning Europe into a fortress. All countries in Europe must share equal responsibility in welcoming refugees. Europe must also support developing countries in the resolution of conflicts which it contributed to creating, and support their economic development in order to improve the quality of life of populations and their ability to sustain themselves.This means that Europe must finally remove the reasons for the exodus of refugees including unfair trade agreements. Trade unions must play a role with regards to the integration of refugees in society and they have a special responsibility to ensure that refugees obtain fair conditions on the labour market. Access to language learning, education and training, medical care and employment is indispensable for a fair integration in society. IndustriAll Europe opposes the use of refugees as cheap labour under precarious working conditions.
Social and labour rights as well as social protection must be put at the centre of the global economic order. Globalisation cannot be used by governments and multinational companies to undermine workers’ and trade union rights and to circumvent social regulations. Europe must push for fair and sustainable globalisation based on the recognition of strong and effective social, environmental and fiscal standards, notably enforcing respect of core labour rights in the context of World Trade Organisation and Free Trade Agreement negotiations.
IndustriAll Europe demands that the new generation of trade agreements such as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US must be negotiated with a view to serving the public interest and not the vested interests of some private investors. A trade policy is needed to that end, based on fair trade, high standards for workers, for health and the environment worldwide as well as on democracy and transparency. IndustriAll Europe calls for a trade policy and trade agreements which are useful to workers in European industrial sectors. Trade and investment agreements must not lead to a dismantling of social and environmental standards, nor to the automatic establishment of a special jurisdiction. Treaties which do not ensure this will come up against dogged resistance from workers and their trade unions.
European Union policies need to be refocused on promoting growth-oriented monetary and budgetary policies, geared towards sustainable growth and more social justice. The EU and its individual Member States must finally take action to combat precarious work, poverty and youth unemployment as well as to secure the future of the manufacturing industry and the creation of industrial jobs in Europe. We demand quality and sustainable jobs that ensure fair pay as well as decent living and working conditions. Strengthening the social dialogue and the collective bargaining systems constitutes a precondition here. A more social Europe also implies the promotion of decent social and labour rights, including trade union rights and the right to strike. Furthermore, a social Europe is impossible without a fair taxation system to prevent beggar-thy-neighbour policies. Faced with multinational companies’ strategies that use globalisation in general and specifically use restructuring to pit workers against each other – often with the support of governments – industriAll European Trade Union affiliates are committed to strengthening their cooperation to defend worker’s interests across Europe. In order to prevent a further race to the bottom between the European regions and sectors, the EU single market must be an instrument for social progress for all rather than for the promotion of private profits. All forms of unfair deregulation must be fought and social dumping must be actively opposed so as to prevent downward pressure on wages and working conditions as well as on collective bargaining structures.
IndustriAll Europe also emphasises the importance of good social dialogue in dealing with these challenges. Social dialogue is an instrument that should be fully used and recognised by the European Commission, social partners and other European actors to deal with industrial and social challenges. In that sense, industriAll Europe condemns any attempt by the European Commission to reduce the means and role of European Social Dialogue.
Securing the future of the manufacturing industry & creating sustainable industrial jobs in Europe
A strong and sustainable manufacturing base is essential for sustained economic prosperity and stability in Europe. A consensus in Europe has finally been reached that economies can only prosper by maintaining a substantial industrial base and that a critical threshold of manufacturing is needed to maintain the sustainability of the European economic and social model. However, the crisis, which has been exacerbated by recessionary austerity measures, has set in motion a deindustrialisation process with many bankruptcies and massive industrial job losses especially in the countries that have been most affected by these policies.
Industrial workers were the first victims of the financial crisis, with 3.8 million people losing their job. The erosion of our industrial basis and the creation of ‘industrial desertification’ in some regions urgently needs to be reversed in order to foster economic activity and employment by implementing industrial recovery policies jointly agreed and coordinated by the social partners on all political decision-making levels. We need strategies on how the industrial base can be rebuilt in countries hit by the crisis and how industry can be developed further in the less affected EU countries.
Europe needs to bring to a halt the disastrous consequences of the financial crisis and austerity policies on the real economy and restart the economy by pursuing coordinated demand-led macroeconomic policies, combining wage increases to boost purchasing power with massive public spending. Europe needs investment. The Juncker plan is a small step forward but this is not enough to make up for the investment that has been lost since 2008 and is unlikely to direct significant investment to the countries that are most in need. IndustriAll Europe supports the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) new Path for Europe plan with its proposed investment programme of 2% of the EU’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year for the next ten years. Sustainable growth-oriented monetary, fiscal and budgetary policies must be promoted by EU policy-makers and central bankers. Fiscal competition and dumping in the EU must be addressed. To this end, the harmonisation of company taxation should be promoted, alongside action against tax havens and tax evasion.
The crisis has also revealed the flaws of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which has been rendered even more fragile and has been destabilised by the Greek crisis. The euro crisis can only be solved by shifting the emphasis towards more economic and fiscal coordination, strengthening efforts by the European Central Bank (ECB) towards financing sovereign debt and by achieving more burden-sharing in tackling economic disparities between countries and promoting the recovery of the European economy. The efforts of the ECB can only be successful in the long run when accompanied by enhanced internal demand and by carrying out an ambitious investment plan. Deepening the EMU can only go hand in hand with a massive expansion of the social dimension, otherwise anti-European forces will become more powerful.
The ongoing domination of the financial sphere over the real economy has to come to an end. Re-regulation of the banking sector must ensure that financial markets promote rather than endanger the growth of the real economy.
The financial crisis still undermines access to finance and this is especially affecting SMEs which are most dependent on bank credit. The creation of a robust banking union, which has been repeatedly called for by industriAll Europe, is therefore very much needed to restore a financial system that supports and develops the real economy.
A coherent and comprehensive industrial policy strategy has to address a number of key challenges that have different effects in our sectors. It has to support the transformation of Europe’s manufacturing sector towards a new model of growth based on sustainable technologies, energy and resources efficiency and carbon-lean production as well as to ensure a concrete industrial investment agenda, an effective European energy policy and a fair level playing field in Europe and at the global level. IndustriAll Europe defends an approach to industrial policy which is based on the right mix between crosscutting and sector-specific issues.
IndustriAll Europe advocates an employment-oriented industrial and sectoral policy to tackle the different challenges of digitalisation and automation arising in the context of globalisation and demographic change in a pan-European sector specific strategy in the interests of workers.
Europe needs an ambitious common approach by all European Institutions to industrial policy (accompanied by coordinated and strong national industrial policies in all EU Member States) which recognises trade unions as a central policy stakeholder and the role of social dialogue. Moreover, Europe needs to provide the financial means to implement this policy. Cooperation between EU Member States is needed more than ever to pool resources to mobilise considerable amounts of finance in order to fund big industrial projects, in particular in R&D and breakthrough technologies. We need an industrial policy that does not only rely on the current strengths of the sectors. A joint innovation effort is needed in high technologies and traditional industries alike. Enhanced cooperation between providers in the high- and medium-technology segments is an essential building block for Europe’s innovative capacity.
Europe’s industry is not only currently suffering from falling overall investment in industrial sites and equipment but also in Europe’s key asset: its people and their competences. High quality education systems combined with ambitious lifelonglearning strategies are essential for European success in global competition, managing the transition to a low carbon, resource efficient and energy efficient economy and increasing workers’ employability. These education systems must promote and develop particular competences such as skills in the areas of ICT, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Strengthened social dialogue is key to fostering the development of a highly skilled workforce with stable, secure and high quality jobs.
Employees will only be committed to company goals when genuine workers’ participation in what companies plan and produce exists. Company level social dialogue is required in order to enable employees to contribute towards innovation. This can only occur if they have good and secure working conditions and well paid jobs.
IndustriAll Europe believes that the primary target of the EU’s environmental policy is to bring about a just transition that establishes synergies between competitiveness, combats global warming, promotes resource efficiency and new technologies whilst creating high quality employment. Social, economic and environmental objectives should not be pitted against each other but need to be taken into equal account in the creation of a sustainable and socially just European economy. Europe is already a front-runner in sustainable technologies and should benefit from the growing demand for eco-technologies and more sustainable products and services. IndustriAll Europe is committed to supporting the synergies between industrial and environmental policies.
Competitive energy prices are of utmost importance as far as preserving the competitiveness of Europe’s industry and especially its energy-intensive industries is concerned. Access to affordable energy is also essential in order to prevent households from suffering from energy poverty. The creation of an Energy Union with the aim of pooling resources, investing jointly, fully integrating the European energy market as well as better coordinating national policies and working together on major issues such as research, greenhouse gas emissions and supply contracts could be a milestone for the EU in terms of improving energy security, affordability and access to energy as well as decarbonising the economy.
Europe can only succeed with the transformation of its manufacturing base towards a sustainable industry with a strong social dimension. Strengthened social dialogue, participation and strong engagement of workers and active social policies with sufficient financial resources are essential to anticipate and accompany structural change. The involvement of social partners and establishment of robust social dialogue structures are a pre-condition for the socially responsible and sustainable transformation of European industry.
Reinforce solidarity, social policy & collective bargaining for quality jobs
Austerity policies do not solve the crisis; they only make it worse. They did not bring back recovery, have pushed millions of workers into unemployment - over 26 million people are now unemployed in the EU – and many more into precarious work with the growing replacement of stable wages with variable remuneration systems and a fall in real wages in 18 of the 28Member States of the European Union.
The deregulation agenda imposed by the European Commission together with other non-directly elected international organisations such as the IMF and the ECB has led to an unprecedented and undemocratic attack on collective agreements, social security systems, acquired and social rights as well as on collective bargaining systems themselves. This agenda, which was implemented in some countries without proper consultation with the social partners (despite their legitimate role) has had a disastrous effect on EU labour markets. Further trends towards the decentralisation of collective bargaining processes and more pressure for more flexibility are increasing uncertainty for workers. The erosion of ‘standard’ or ‘typical’ forms of employment contracts has given rise to zero hour contracts, temporary and other forms of precarious jobs, creating a generation of working poor. This situation is undermining the financial sustainability of the health and pension systems.
IndustriAll Europe is resolutely opposed to the neoliberal assault on collective bargaining and acquired rights and will utilise and support all trade union means and resources to stave it off. IndustriAll Europe urges EU leaders to derail from the deregulation agenda, which is economically and socially unacceptable and unsustainable. Instead, they must promote a re-regulation agenda ensuring high quality jobs, improved working and living conditions and proper social protection. It also demands a halt to the REFIT programme which, under the guise of promoting a ‘better regulation’ agenda, is threatening fundamental labour rights, workers’ social protection and their health and safety.