The contents of the seminar

Manfred Anderle, president of the EMF Collective Bargaining Committee welcomed the participants and explained the objectives of this workshop.

Also national trade union activities need to be coordinated to face the challenges of globalisation and cross border restructuring. Common modules in national trade union training activities can become a tool facilitating a coordinated approach to counter attempts from employers and their organisations to play the workers from one country against others.

Isabelle Barthes, senior adviser at the EMF and Manfred Anderle, Chair of the Collective Bargaining Committee, reminded the participants about EMF priorities  and policies which should be integrated in national training activities. Priorities and resolutions have been developed and adopted regarding company policy issues and coordination of collective bargaining. (Download those presentations from the Seminar documents section.)

Joachim Beerhorst, IG Metall, explained some basic differences between national representation systems. If national trade unions are going to cooperate a mutual understanding of each others representation conditions and industrial relation systems should developed. 

Manfred Anderle gave also a few examples of cross border activities like exchange programmes and seminars organised by the EMF in partnership with ETUI-REHS Education and bilateral or multilateral training activities.

National training activities

In working groups the participants exchanged about

Some organisations have already tree -seven days seminars around European issues, languages courses, specially targeted are young trade union leaders. But in some cases European issues are not prioritised.

EWC representatives and coordinators are often the main target group for training activities about European issues although their activities do not always get the recognition they deserve.

Transnational exchange programmes have been set up between some Nordic and German trade unions. Nordic unions organise also specific training activities in Brussels to familiarise reps with the European trade union movement and social dialogue.

But overall several participants agreed about that there seems to be a lack of strategic concept about training on European and international issues.

Several representatives reported also about difficulties to recruit participants to  training activities dealing with European and international topics. According to them there is a lack of resources and support for international issues. It is difficult to motivate trade union activists to integrate the European dimension in their work.

Restructuring isn't perceived in the same way by all unions depending on national experiences like i.e. flexsecurity systems in Nordic countries.   Training activities should take the European perspective into consideration to a higher degree.

Health and safety issues have been put on the forefront thanks to European legislation.

European project for EWC members gathering reps from different countries seem to be a way to raise interest.

Not everything can be delegated to the European level of the trade union movement. The commitment of national organisations should increase. Language skills to facilitate cross border communication need also to be promoted.

Setting up a systematic  communication network between training bodies from EMF affiliates could allow transmission as well as gathering of information about transnational problems and possible solutions. Trade unions should also keep an eye on how employers organise their communication and coordination at European level.

A common curriculum for training of national officers and local representatives should contain

Identifying training needs about influencing European decision making processes

A positive example: the ETF campaign around the Port Package directive

Doro Zinke, DGB Berlin-Brandenburg explained the campaign organised by ETF to prevent the deregulation of Ports & Docks.  In 2001 the Commission proposed a EU directive aiming at introducing competition in ports and allowing ship crews to load and unload vessels through so called self handling.  The main impact from a trade union point of view would have been to seriously deteriorate terms and conditions for the dockers and to raise the level of precariousness in their employment conditions. The campaign needed to be run as well at company, national as at European and international level. And there was an obvious need of European coordination between very different kind of national trade unions organising dockers and seafarers.  (Download this presentation from the Seminar document section of this Home Page.)

What common training strategies and training contents could be develop together?

In working groups the participants exchanged about how their national training systems try to prepare officials and shop stewards to take part in such coordinated European actions and what resources are available to run training activities about the coordination of such campaigns. (The reports of the working groups on flip charts can be downloaded as photos from the Seminar document section of this Home Page).

Reports of the working groups:

Lobbying at appropriate level

Language skills

Knowledge of EU policies, decision making process and the structure of EU institutions and contacts with representatives able to influence this process

Realising there is not only one way to do it

Sensitivity to intercultural aspects

Knowledge about production networks and supply chains in their sector

Understand company decision making processes, local, national

Trust, how it is built up

Mainstreaming cross border dimensions

Language courses

Meet people in small, easy and informal way.

Training on IR systems (first steps) include other IR courses

Train the trainers

Decisions at central level must be clear.

Spread existing information

Tools for presentations i.e PPT

Use the national level

Mainstreaming European issues in regular training

Target groups are trainers and full time officers , focus on everyday work

Underlying method: experimental training (Paulo Freire)

 

Tools/modules needed:

On collective bargaining

How does bargaining take place in the various countries and influence bargaining,

What are the quantitative and qualitative outcomes

How can coordination help

What are the EMF policies

Resources:

General info on EMF policies

Ongoing info (EUCOBA

Specific case studies.

On company policy

Restructuring/relocation

Need to see the whole picture

Consequences here and for other locations

What are the alternatives

EMF guidelines/policies

Resources:

EMF restructuring handbook

Ongoing info

Case stories (not only Geman ones), analyse the consequences of our misstakes

How do other system work?

Use a speaker from other country

On influencing the European legislative decision making process

Description of the structures of the European Union and the role of Social Dialogue at cross sectoral and sectoral level.

Descriptions of case studies showing how Employers and the trade union movement have been able to influence this process.

Resources:

ETUI-REHS materials on social dialogue

EMF Home Page

 

During the plenary debate about those proposals the suggestion was made to organise joint trainers courses with the aim to qualify trainers to integrate European issues like social dialogue at various levels, coordination of collective bargaining, trends in labour law at national and EU level, health and safety regulations, campaigning in order to influence the European decision making process. Such joint cross border courses could facilitate an ongoing exchange of materials and methods between EMF affiliates.

Manfred Anderle, in his conclusions suggested that the outcomes of this seminar should be reported to the EMF, with the proposal to create a working party. The task of this working party could be to further develop the proposals made at this seminar in order to submit them to the Executive Committee of the EMF. 

 This site was last updated 07/18/07