EUROPEAN DIARY:Unions are angry that, after various banking summits, a meeting on unemployment has been downgraded, writes JAMIE SMYTH.
SOME 300 steelworkers fearful of losing their jobs occupied a building hosting management and union talks at an Arcelor Mittal factory in Florange, a town in northeastern France, last week. The world’s largest steelmaker has already announced plans to shed 9,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to cope with an economic crisis that has cut global steel production by up to 45 per cent. But with no sign of a recovery in demand for steel the firm is now seeking further measures to ensure its long-term survival.
“They’ve put part of the plant workforce on enforced leave without even telling us when production will resume,” union shop steward Edouard Martin explained to reporters covering the latest in the series of factory protests across Europe.
On the same day in Brussels three managers at a Fiat sales office were finally allowed to leave work after another “bossnapping” incident when workers protested over the announcement of 24 planned redundancies. And it is not just on the Continent – well known for its militant labour tendencies – that unrest is fomenting. Back home in Belfast sit-ins and pickets are continuing at the car components firm Visteon, which is making 210 workers redundant. Waterford Crystal has also experienced worker sit-ins.
Industrial unrest is bubbling up all over Europe as dole queues lengthen during this recession. Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, reported last week there are now 19 million people unemployed in the EU and a staggering 478,000 workers lost their jobs in February.
Spain has the highest rate of joblessness at 15.5 per cent. The Baltic states are also being hit hard by the recession with unemployment in Latvia at 14.4 per cent and Lithuania at 13.7 per cent. Irish unemployment is now 11 per cent but expected to rise.
The Czech Republic, which holds the six-month presidency of the EU, has announced it will hold an employment summit in Prague on May 7th. But any hopes of a magic solution to the jobs crisis were dashed when the summit was promptly downgraded from a full meeting of all 27 EU leaders to a gathering featuring only the leaders of the Czech Republic, Sweden and Spain – holders of the current and next two EU presidencies.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who probably has more to fear than others given the power of organised labour in France, argued there was little point in raising public expectations when most employment policies are controlled by national governments and not the EU.
There are also fears the summit will be a focal point for anti-government protests in the lead-up to the European elections in June. Demonstrations look like happening anyway, with big European trade union protests planned for Berlin, Prague and Brussels on May 15th and 16th.
“We are rejecting the timid complacency of the European authorities who have downgraded the proposed Jobs Summit on May 7th – they have downgraded the unemployed, not just the summit,” said ETUC general secretary John Monks in a speech last week. “They will hear the voice of the streets,” he warned.
Unions are particularly angry that EU leaders have met several times to discuss the banking crisis but have dodged their first opportunity to come together and discuss the hardship faced by workers. The growing resentment makes it all the more important that tangible measures to help the unemployed get back to work are announced by the Union in the afternoon of May 7th.
But what can the EU do? A deal struck by EU ambassadors and MEPs last week on a reform of the globalisation adjustment fund (GAF) is a first step. This €500 million annual fund was set up in 2006 to help workers made redundant as a result of unexpected changes in global trade to access retraining and get back to work. But the very strict conditions for accessing the fund have resulted in just 16 applications for funding and less than €70 million has been paid out over the last three years.
Amendments to the GAF will allow member states apply for financial support to aid retraining when 500 workers are let go, rather than the 1,000 requirement at present. The EU will also pay 65 per cent of the cost of retraining schemes, up from 50 per cent currently. Crucially, the scheme has been extended to cover businesses that shed jobs due to the current crisis rather than just shifting patterns of world trade – a requirement that may have caused problems for an application covering job losses at Dell.
EU employment commissioner Vladimir Spidla has told Minister for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher that the EU executive commissioner will do all it can to help the Limerick region following the Dell closure and job losses at its suppliers. GAF funding may also be available to help cushion the effect of the proposed job losses at SR Technics and Waterford Crystal.
The GAF is likely to be the big-ticket item announced at the May jobs summit, which will also stress the importance of sharing best practice across EU states. The possibility of fast-tracking payments from the European Social Fund will also be unveiled. But with no magic solution to the emerging employment crisis EU leaders can expect a long hot summer of industrial unrest ahead and the odd bossnapping to continue hitting the headlines.