This event had the support of the EUROPEAN UNION

Seminar documents

The seminar gathered trade union representatives from Austria, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the Czech Republic and the objectives were:

Experiences of trade union mergers

After the introduction of the programme and it's objectives Jens Bundvad from CO-Industri and Thomas Beattie from AMICUS presented and commented the outcome of a survey on HR management in various trade unions affiliated to EMF. The presentation and background statistics can be downloaded from the "Seminar documents" section.

Experiences of trade union mergers were introduces by Thomas Beattie, AMICUS and Eric Andersson, IF Metall and the lessons to be drawn were discussed in working groups.

Some of the conclusions:

The economy of scale are often not reached or only after a quite longer period than expected. The objectives are  not only to reach synergies but also to secure a better collective bargaining coverage and need to be made clear for all parties involved. Some local representatives can se their interests threatened. They need to be involved in the merger through an extensive process of information and consultation. For trade unions the redundancies resulting from mergers are difficult to handle an connected with huge costs which best can be achieved by increasing the membership. The process needs to be planned carefully so that it takes place by choice rather than forced.  Some merger do not reach economy of scale and some are driven by necessity. Future pension costs due to various pension schemes have to be taken into consideration.  In Amicus nine different pension schemes have to be unified.

The ownership of the trade union plays a role especially if unions with different kind of ownership - decentralised and centralised are going to merge. If the control of appointments at regional or local level is controlled by the branches they can oppose a new system implying that the final decision is made by the head office.

The achievement of formulated goals is more important to activists than to members who are rather interested in if they will get better services and benefits. The activists have to be convinced and gained for the new strategy. The synergies are not the key argument to convince the activists.

Organising activities increase usually but the impact on recruitment and membership has still to be demonstrated.

Trade Unions in a changing environment and the impact on HR policies?

Bob Farakerley, SEECHANGE, introduced a debate about changes in the environment affecting trade unions.  Download his presentation from the Seminar document section.

In working groups the participants debated the following questions:

One problem is to identify  and make the difference between changes that are acceptable for trade unions and other changes that are not. The development of precarious employment is a big concern for trade unions and the membership. Organisational changes in the structures of trade unions are of an other kind. We need to develop a vision about perspectives and probable changes. In order to become an organising body trade unions have to take onboard the needs of the workforce especially the workers in new precarious "employment forms". A new dimension becoming more and more important is the cross border aspect, trade unions values are based on solidarity and one of the questions to be answered is who should be included in that solidarity.

Trade unions should probably reorganise their communication systems in order to better identify the specific needs of individual members.

New products and new work forms are reshaping industrial relations. The service sector tends to grow at the expenses of the manufacturing sector.

The trend against general trade unions covering several sector away from the craft tradition can be seen in many countries.

Unions need to put the members at the forefront. The education system in unions should adapt to the fast changes by analysing the specific needs of the shop stewards. The crisis awareness  is quite high in many trade unions and should be used to question the way things are done. Workers will have to shift jobs more often in the future and for trade unions securing their pension rights and the social safety net will probably become a main priority.

Personnel versus  HRM

Bob Farakerley underlined the trends in Human Resource Management as it is set in practice in many companies and contrasted it to more traditional forms of Personnel Management.

The personnel manager is nowadays called the HRM but the differences between both concepts need to be taken into consideration by trade union. HRM is a tool used by corporation in order to undermine trade union activities. The assumptions between the concepts should be clarified. HRM goes beyond contracts - longer hours should be achieved, unpaid overtime and more flexibility is required of the staff.  In Personnel management trade unions had a role in the supervision of the rules. HRM sees the rules as an obstacle to efficiency. Quick decisions have to be taken. HRM focuses on business need instead of norms, mission statements become more important and the values are often developed by management with the help of consultants. In corporation the role of HRM is to nurture the organisation. Personnel management builds on a pluralist view of relations at the workplace taking into account that conflict of interests will occur and have to be solved by negotiations. HRM applies an unitarist view and conflicts are de-emphasised. Parity is not a significant issue anymore and the key relationship becomes business management where the customer is king. Shop stewards tend to be marginalised. HRM is about sweating the assets.  Consultation is not about whether decisions are to be taken but rather how they are going to be implemented. Line manager become team leaders in charge of discipline. Shop stewards are not directly involved and in most of the cases called in afterwards.  Line manager are trained to work under the umbrella of the HRM.  The key skills in personnel management was negotiation, in HRM it's facilitation.  Performance assessment becomes a priority and will be market driven with no interference of trade unions and terms and conditions tend to be harmonised in HRM.  

In working groups the following issues were discussed:

Once upon a time being a trade union official was a way to solve employment problems. Qualification and demands from the membership require that the best candidates are recruited.  Making a trade union official redundant was done only under exceptional circumstances. 

Becoming a full time officer is nowadays a beginning. Trade unions usually devise own training plans for newly recruited officer. In some cases retraining packages have to be proposed to redundant officers who do not fit in the organisation any more.

They must be highly qualified, having a lot of knowledge about law and collective bargaining issues. Personnel management has become more important in the recruitment process and the monitoring of careers and work

The TU officer should  also be seen as a consultant or a coach, brainstorming and creativity are important as is leadership. The new official must be able to se across borders and have some cross cultural skill.

Cross border aspect are increasingly becoming more important.

Trade unions need a broader recruitment base since the membership has become more heterogeneous.

Time management, prospective, knowledge and ability to work in leadership team. Some unions are still reluctant to hire applicants without trade union background.  The list of priorities and related skills has to be specified for each position and trade unions have to devise specific training plans. Exchange programmes through internship are set in practice between some unions.

 

Next steps

Ulrike Obermayr, IG Metall, explained how the exchange programme for full time officers of trade unions affiliated to EMF. Her presentation can be downloaded from "Seminar documents".

The following issues were debated during the following session:

Bad working conditions: we have to find ways to avoid those conditions to be spread through global pressure

Collective bargaining: both at company level and cross border level - "Protect without Protectionism"

Restructuring of companies has to be handled in a coordinated way

Skills and training have to be improved and qualifications should be reconised in various countries

Redefine the concept of solidarity in the European and global perspective. Establish a regulation of a new international system regarding the division of labour.

Dealing with multinational management, (EWC coordinators, full time officers)

Consider the global impact of national agreements

Consider the local impact of global agreement.

Cross borders workers, temporary agency workers, regional cooperation

Establish and foster networks for improving contacts between organisations and people.

Improve the languages skills is a precondition for better communication

Gaining knowledge and understanding of the different systems of industrial relations.

Establish and develop a systematic training and further education about those issues

Reinforce the internal cohesions of EWCs

Use the existing electronic networks

Use the exchange programme in a strategic way by defining and "pushing" the target groups.

 

Higher priority in the personnel management work by defining the categories of staff taking part in the programme.

Defining the contents and inform the target group.

Trade union trainers are a key target group.

Union management/leadership programmes

Sharing experiences

Getting to know programmes and instruments

Define common elements for further training of future leaders.

Develop common requirements for full time officials.

Invite trainers from other countries in national training activities.

Why not define a common training module on global and European issues shared by all EMF affiliates?