Brussels, 17/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - On the first day of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) congress in Athens (see EUROPE 10379), trade union delegates from 36 countries sent a clear message with an emergency resolution and a letter to European finance ministers, urging them to change the logic of the financial bail outs, to respect the autonomy of social partners and to remind them that Europe has no power in the area of wages.
In his letter, ETUC General Secretary John Monks calls on EU finance ministers “to immediately change course”. He writes: “Brutal austerity, both in terms of public finance as in terms in wages, is not working but is, instead, undermining the economies of countries such as Greece, Ireland and Romania. Moreover, the crisis - which is first and foremost a financial market failure - is now being used as an alibi to provide European policy makers with the power to intervene in wages and national wage formation systems”.
“The congress of the ETUC urgently appeals to you as ministers of finance participating in the Ecofin Council meeting this evening and tomorrow to immediately change the logic of the financial bail outs, allowing the countries involved to grow out of debt”, he adds.
The ETUC calls on finance ministers, when the mandate fort the economic governance package is being set, to respect the autonomy of social partners and also to take into account the fact that Europe has no competence on pay. “Organising wage competition by European institutions setting restrictive wage targets” will not be accepted by the ETUC and its affiliates, Monks says.
With the adoption of the emergency resolution on the eve of the Ecofin Council, the ETUC congress expressed its “full solidarity and support with the workers and the trade union movement n Greece and other countries that are severely tested by the different austerity measures”. Congress said that European Unions “will never accept direct or indirect intervention in pay, in the autonomy of collective bargaining or in national wage formation systems”.
Speaking to press on Monday, Monks said: “Workers from all over Europe know that there is an alternative to austerity and the European Commission's economic governance. We want to see European politicians finally decide to raise the taxes on the wealthy, to issue Eurobonds especially to help countries with sovereign debt problems and to adopt a plan for the employment of young people. Another major demand from the unions is the introduction of a European financial transaction tax”. In this, he went on, “we urge the Commission not to ignore the hundreds of thousands of replies in favour of such a tax which came out of the consultation on financial sector taxation.” He concluded by saying: “These are going to be the priorities for the Secretariat which is going to lead the ETUC for the next four years.”
During the day's speeches, Bernard Thibault (CGT, France) criticised plans for a European pact on strengthening the economies of the euro area, which calls for wage moderation. “It's an anti-social pact”, he thundered, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). He said that unions had to “reconsider the future of Europe”. He said he was disappointed that “the economic and financial dimension have won the day” along with the “temptation of the 'everyone for himself' attitude” which is currently leading to the rise in extreme right-wing, xenophobic movements throughout Europe. He stated that the United Kingdom and Romania were looking to review their employment laws to remove some of the constraints on employers, Poland wanted to reduce wages and pensions, retirement age was under discussion everywhere, social spending had been cut in Portugal and privatisation encouraged in Greece. Yannis Panagopoulos (GSEE, Greece) pointed out that “what is happening in Greece concerns the whole of Europe. In other words, the debt is a nightmare and, at the same time, the crisis is rapidly becoming an employment crisis”. Graciete Cruz (CGTP, Portugal) is reported by AFP as saying that her union “cannot accept measures which require economic and social regression in exchange for financial aid. Workers are carrying the can for a crisis for which they are not responsible.” She suggested that Portugal would probably be unable to repay the IMF and EU loans. (G.B./transl.rt)