It is high time to rebuild collective bargaining in Europe

Last month, industriAll Europe launched its Together at Work campaign for collective bargaining. It aims to promote the benefits of collective bargaining around Europe, for workers but also for the economy and for wider society.

Over the last 20 years, trade union density has been under pressure in Europe, and the bargaining position of trade unions and workers has been weakened. The crisis and its harsh political management have accelerated this trend. In the countries under Troika programs, collective bargaining structures, and mechanisms aimed at extending collective agreements to all workers in a sector, have simply been dismantled. These policies have further contaminated other countries where governments have also interfered to undermine their national collective bargaining systems.

The results are clear: inequality, in-work poverty, economic insecurity and precarious work are exploding across Europe. The promised convergence between EU countries has not come to pass and distrust towards the EU and governments is mounting. The European project is no longer seen as a driver of social progress.

We need to create a model of social justice that reduces income inequalities, supports purchasing power, generates quality jobs and leads to an inclusive society. Collective bargaining is an essential ingredient of this social model as it delivers fair and collective solutions for all. Too often, debates about living standards overlook collective bargaining and, in doing so, disregards workers’ own agency in improving their lives and those of their families.

Today, many European countries need to build or rebuild their collective bargaining systems in order to make sure that a large majority of workers will (once again) enjoy the protection of collective agreements.

With our campaign Together at Work, we want to show that Europe needs good collective bargaining, with solid structures, but also with strong trade unions and representative employers’ organisations that can negotiate inclusive collective agreements that benefit everyone.

Time for better working conditions and pay

This campaign comes at the right time, as there is growing recognition in the European institutions of the value of collective bargaining. Ursula von der Leyen, President-elect of the European Commission, and Nicolas Schmit, Commissioner-designate for Jobs, both expressed their support for collective bargaining in front of the European Parliament. Schmit defended the need to strengthen social dialogue and collective bargaining, vowed to boost communication both with the European and National parliaments when developing new policies and insisted on the need to base any decision on impact assessments. “More than ever facts need to drive our actions,” he said.

The Together at Work Campaign will provide such facts about the real lives of workers, because we are giving the floor to workers over the next six months. They will explain why collective bargaining and strong trade unions are so important to them, their colleagues and their families.

This is what the slogan of the campaign reflects, specifically, the meaning of collective bargaining: workers who come ‘together at work’ and fight for better working conditions and pay through their trade union, which together with employers negotiates a collective agreement.

The campaign can be followed at the website www.togetheratwork.eu and will be broken down into six targeted campaigns, each one lasting a month and focusing on specific target groups, such as young workers, women and employers. In each month, new material linked to these targeted campaigns will be distributed amongst our affiliates – in hundreds of companies, in conferences, on social media, in publications – all over Europe.

Political demands

This is a campaign of industriAll Europe, addressed to workers and to our members, but it is clear to us that we need political action at a European level to strengthen collective bargaining. Hence, we have clear political demands.

Firstly, the European institutions, and the Commission in particular, have to change the narrative that they followed during the crisis period. Collective bargaining is not the problem, it is the solution to create a fairer Europe, with social progress for all. It is also the tool to overcome the huge transformations which are present in our industries such as digitalisation, decarbonisation, climate action etc. We expect concrete action from Europe to support collective bargaining.

Secondly, national and EU policymakers must adopt a public discourse about the value of collective bargaining and allocate dedicated national and EU support for capacity building of social dialogue and collective bargaining. Where not yet done, member states must support and ratify the ILO Conventions on the fundamental right to collective bargaining, as well as the Council of Europe’s decisions on this topic.

For their part, employers can no longer refuse to sit at the negotiating table, as they have been doing, for instance, in some countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Employers must shoulder their responsibility and acknowledge that collective bargaining can also benefit companies, by creating a level playing field which makes companies and economies more stable.

To conclude, we look at ourselves and we will do what we must do as trade unions. We don’t put the responsibility solely on the shoulders of others. However, we also have to look at European and national policy makers, as well as at employers; from them we demand a different approach, a constructive view and genuine support for meaningful collective bargaining in Europe.