Labour Movement for Europe: How can we make social Europe a concern for everyone?

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Published Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 10:44
by noelhatch Join PES activists in New Social Europe (295 views and 3 comments)

Deborah Littman, Chair of London Citizens Living Wage Network & UNISON National Officer for Bargaining, at the New Social Europe debate in London, admitted she wholly agreed with many of the proposals made in the New Social Europe discussion paper. But she was concerned on how we get there, how we make social Europe a concern for everyone.

Work has been made insecure, the social wage has been reduced and there has been a steep decline in bargaining power from workers. Communities have been dismantled, workers distanced from their employers or contractors. There has been a very deliberate policy to push back the gains of the workers, often by stealth. Expectations have been constantly lowered to the extent that our goal becomes not how we can make it better, but how can we prevent it being that bad. How can you organise when you don’t know who you’re actually working for? The trade unions struggle with bargaining, sometimes too conservative in their approach. The game has changed – we need to deal issue by issue.

How can we fight for this manifesto? How can we make it exist in real life? How can we turn it into something powerful?

There is an issue of language – we have now replaced a collectively provided social wage with individualised budgets – losing the economies of scale and the social benefits of the former. We need to frame the language on the notion of accountability. The corporate forces need to be accountable to the community, we need to reassert this notion that you are responsible for what you do to your workers. There is something more than money, giving back to your community. Deborah explaining that with London Citizens, they focus on developing leadership skills and organising a “listening campaign”, bringing together 2500 people from over 90 organisations across London. They developed a range of proposals and voted on the top four to submit to the Mayor of London, asking him not only to take this forward but to work with us. Deborah proposed that we need to:

  • build a strong coalition within and beyond the labour movement
  • build a “listening campaign” for the manifesto and the next elections
  • frame the language on the notion of accountability to the corporate forces

See more of her proposals and her debate here:



Check out the different debates of the "Globalisation of the community, how can we build a more social Europe" here:

Tags: activists, employment, social dialogue, wages, welfare, workers

Comments

1. Workers rights by Asynjen Join PES activists on Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 11:40

I watched a current affairs programme in TV yesterday. It was about people from Poland and Romania working as delivery men in Denmark. They paid a huge sum - at least by Polish and Romanian standards - to 'recruitment agencies' that put them in touch with Danish employers. Danish law says that these workers should be offered a minimum of 30 hours of work a week - which they also expect, when they sell their homes to go and live in a foreign country! - but they're not. Some of them experience an income as low as 330 Euro monthly! I was shocked! How could this happen in my home country where we are usually proud of our fair wages and strong labour unions? I certainly agree with Deborah Littman that workers' rights are certainly still a BIG issue - and we, in the PES manifesto, need to consider how we can ensure fair wages and good working conditions for both national and 'foreign' workers in all European countries.

2. It's a free world.. by noelhatch Join PES activists on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 08:48

The film, "It's a Free World" gives food for thought on this issue

3. What do we learn from the Rüffert-judgment of the ECJ? by mochinho Join PES activists on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 13:05

The Rüffert-judgment of the ECJ (http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&newform=newform&Submit=Submit&alljur=alljur&jurcdj=jurcdj&jurtpi=jurtpi&jurtfp=jurtfp&alldocrec=alldocrec&docj=docj&docor=docor&docop=docop&docav=docav&docsom=docsom&docinf=docinf&alldocnorec=alldocnorec&docnoj=docnoj&docnoor=docnoor&typeord=ALLTYP&allcommjo=allcommjo&affint=affint&affclose=affclose&numaff=&ddatefs=&mdatefs=&ydatefs=&ddatefe=&mdatefe=&ydatefe=&nomusuel=r%C3%BCffert&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100) has caused a strong debate about collective rights of workers. The reasoning allows varied solutions for every member state of the EU, but as Social Democrats/Socialists we have to demand a balance of economic, labour, and social issues to make the EU a social Europe and more acceptable for the general public.

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