EFFAT Work Program to prioritise a Europe that offers all its citizens a future with decent living and working conditions

Transcription

1 Special edition: EFFAT Congress 2014 In the spotlight EFFAT Work Program to prioritise a Europe that offers all its citizens a future with decent living and working conditions EFFAT election outcomes Pledge to give youth employment issues the priority they deserve Showcase of best practices in achieving pay equality Securing a fair and decent European labour market EFFAT adopts nine important political resolutions Draft agenda - 21 November On 20 November, the 4th EFFAT Congress adopted the EFFAT Work Program that sets out the focal points of EFFAT s work from 2015 to 2019, taking into account new political challenges, which in particular resulted from the economic and social crisis. EFFAT s work will focus on the following four fundamental aims: workers and trade unions, and the rights to representation and/ or participation maintaining jobs and creating better ones improving living standards and preventing social dumping improving living and working conditions. the following key areas from 2015 to 2019: 1. Recruiting new members 2. Maintaining and creating decent jobs and employment 3. Promoting worker training 4. Improving health and safety at work defending and improving the rights of The Work Program sets out specific initiatives in (Continued on page 2)

2 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 P a ge 2 EFFAT election outcomes An important agenda item of the first day of Congress (20 November) was elections to the following EFFAT posts for the next Congress period: President, General Secretary, Regional Vice- Presidents and deputies, Sectoral Presidents, Deputy President (from among the regional Vice- Presidents), and members of the Auditing Committee and Constitution Committee. EFFAT welcomes the following individuals to these positions: EFFAT President: Therese Guovelin (HRF, Sweden) EFFAT Deputy President: Ermanno Bonaldo (Fai-CISL, Italy) EFFAT General Secretary: Harald Wiedenhofer Members of the Auditing Committee: Dirk Van der Plancken (ACV Voeding en Diensten/CSC Alimentation et Services, Belgium), Denise Cordemans (BBTK-SETCa, Belgium), Steen Karlsen (NNF, Denmark) Members of the Constitution Committee: Bruno Vannoni (FGA-CFDT, France), Annika Rönni Sällinen (PAM, Finland), Scott Walker (Unite the Union, UK) (Continued from page 1) 5. Cooperation and coordination in collective bargaining 6. (Gender equality 7. Youth activities 8. Consolidating EFFAT trade unions in transnational companies 9. Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and Turkey 10. Working methods and consolidating EFFAT s organisational arrangements. The Work Program further lists priorities in the agriculture, food and tourism sectors specifically.

3 P a ge 3 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 Pledge to give youth employment issues the priority they deserve At their inaugural meeting of 9 December 2013, the EFFAT Youth Committee agreed on work priorities for the period and exchanged ideas about the youth employment session to be held this morning (21 November 2014), titled Enough of their crisis back to our future! In recognition of the fact that youth issues are often sidelined rather than mainstreamed into all activities in trade union work, the Youth Committee proposed that the session should result in enhanced commitment to youth employment issues. In particular, the Youth Committee agreed that the output of the session should be a signed pledge by which all EFFAT members commit to better integrating young people in trade union work and to taking at least one initiative to attract more young members. Today s youth employment session will serve to present good practices and evoke discussion, in order to inspire innovative ideas for achieving the goals of the pledge. One pledge will need to be completed and signed by every EFFAT member organisation, and shared at the end of the session, for other organisations to see. The session will be chaired by Blaine Kilgallon, a member of the EFFAT Youth Committee Steering Group. Aged 27, Blaine worked part-time as a nightshift warehouse operative for Sainsbury s (one of the UK s three largest retailers) in Northern Ireland throughout university and stayed on subsequent to graduating, due to the recession and consequent mass job losses and saturated employment market. Since his election as nightshift shop steward, Blaine was trained by Unite as the health and safety representative, and thereafter established a healthy dialogue with both store management and Sainsbury s Northern Ireland management. He created the Sainsbury s Northern Ireland workplace branch to give representatives and members a greater voice in the union and the region after a period of stagnation. He also helped to relaunch Unite s Irish Youth Committee, which encompasses both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The now-fully functioning youth committee has put forward a motion on sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Blaine has also been a national representative for Sainsbury s representing his region, sits on the industrial sector committee of Food, Drink and Tobacco and the Irish Executive of Unite representing young members. Additional panellists will include: (Continued on page 4)

4 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 P a ge 4 (Continued from page 3) Inge Gielis, Deputy President of the EFFAT Youth Committee. Inge works for ACV Voeding en Diensten/CSC Alimentation et Services where she is responsible for several sectors, one of which is the food industry. She is also responsible for organising young shop stewards. Tanja Fynbo, President of the EFFAT Youth Committee. Tanja, 29, works in the local office of Denmark s 3F in Copenhagen with young people and apprentices. Tanja was Vice-President of 3F Youth ( ), and President of youth in the hotel and restaurant sector in 3F ( ). Thomas Klösch, National Youth Secretary of PRO-GE, Austria. Sascha Ernszt, Chairperson of ÖGJ, member of the ÖGB Board, Chairperson of the PRO-GE National Youth since 2013, on the Siemens AG Works Council since 2011, and Youth Representative at Siemens AG ( ). On 19 Noember at the Hotel Intercontinental Vienna, the EFFAT Women s Committee held a conference to present the results of the EFFAT project titled Promote industrial relations in the domestic work sector in Europe, which is cofinanced by the EU, and to agree on future steps in the field of domestic workers. Representatives from countries where there are interesting developments with regards to domestic workers were invited to

5 P a ge 5 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 Showcase of best practices in achieving pay equality A session on gender equality will be held by the EFFAT Women s Committee today, 21 November 2014, to showcase successful initiatives and campaigns of EFFAT member organisations to combat wage inequality between men and women. Representatives of member organisations with interesting information to share have been invited to explain recent positive examples of measures on equal pay. The equal pay panel will be chaired by Marianne Landa of Vida, Austria, the newly elected President of the EFFAT Women s Committee. Marianne Landa has been Vida s representative to EFFAT (through the EFFAT Women s Committee) since 2009, and to the IUF since Since 2007, Marianne has been Chairperson of the Council of 310 employees in Airest (for which she has been the labour representative since 1996), and member of the Vida Lower Austria State Board, the Federal Executive of the Vida tourism section, the Board of the Health Fund (representing Vida), and of Vida Women in Lower Austria. Marianne previously worked as a catering specialist in the hospitality industry. Additional panellists will include: Klaudia Frieben, Federal Chairperson, and Deputy National Chairperson of PRO- GE, Austria Eva Guovelin, Vice- President of Svenska Livsmedelsarbetare Förbundet (LIVS), Sweden Birgit Pitsch, Head of Department of Women and Equality Policy, NGG, Germany additional contributions by FEAGRA CCOO, CCOO Servicios, and SMC UGT, Spain.

6 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 P a ge 6 Securing a fair and decent European labour market Precarious work has been at the centre of EFFAT s work program over the past five years, and while many objectives have been achieved, for example, a diagnosis of the issue at hand, and the development of a charter and roadmap, much still needs to be done. The panel session today (21 November), titled For a fair and decent European labour market, will focus on the actions required by national and European legislators, employers and trade unions to achieve a fair and decent European labour market. The aim of the session is to set out a series of possible actions that can frame EFFAT s work program on precarious work over the next five years. The moderator of the panel is Maria Jepsen, Director of the Research Department, European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) and chargée de cours (associate professor) in labour economics at the ULB. Maria Jepsen holds a PhD in economics from the Free University of Brussels (ULB). Before joining the ETUI as a senior researcher in 2001, she worked as assistant professor and research fellow at the ULB from Maria Jepsen s main research interest is in gender studies and comparative studies of the impact of welfare states on labour supply, wages and working conditions. In recent years she has also focused on the construction and development of social policy on the European level and how this interacts with the national settings with a particular focus on the economic governance system. Maria Jepsen is a member of several committees, councils and advisory boards at national and international level on employment, social, gender, and research issues among others. The panellists including Sam Hägglund, EFBWW General Secretary, Therese Guovelin, newly elected EFFAT President, Erich Folgar, ÖGB President, and Inge Gielis, Deputy President of the EFFAT Youth Committee. Sam Hägglund is General Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW). He was formerly General Secretary of the Nordic Federation of Building and Woodworkers. Before that he was Head of the research department of the Swedish construction workers union, as well as EU advisor for Swedish trade unions within the confederations LO and TCO. He has 15 years experience as research leader and lecturer in social sciences and humanities. He is qualified as an architect at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. His academic degrees include MSc in science methodology, philosophy, economics and literature, and PhD in social history at Stockholm University and KTH, Stockholm. Erich Folgar has been ÖGB President since 2009 and a member of the Austrian Trade Union management since He is also a member of the Executive Board of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), member of the Administra- tive Committee of the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD, and Vice- President of the Pan European Regional Council (PERC). Previously, from 2006 to 2008, Erich Foglar was General Secretary of the Trade Union for Metal, Textile and Food workers. During 2006 he also acted as ÖGB Executive Secretary, responsible for finances.

7 Page 7 A toolmaker by trade, Erich Foglar was General Secretary for the Metalworkers Union (later called the Trade Union for Metal and Textile Workers) ( ), Deputy General Secretary for the Metalworkers Union, Finance Department ( ), Political secretary for the Metalworkers Union ( ), Training official for the regional management ViennaSouthwest ( ), Deputy chair of the works council for manual workers ( ), and member of the Works Council ( ). Therese Guovelin has been active within the trade union movement since the late eighties. She started out waitressing and was elected as trade union and health and safety representa- EFFAT News tive (HSO) at her workplace in In 1993, she started work as a trade union official for the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union (HRF) in Gothenburg. A few years later, in 1998, she began working for the HRF national office, where she still works today. In 2003, Therese was appointed International Secretary of HRF and participated in meetings of the European Federation of Food, Agriculture EFFAT Congress 2014 and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) in Brussels and International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) in Geneva for the first time. Therese was soon elected Deputy of the Board in EFFAT and Titular Board Member of IUF. In 2008, Therese was elected Vice-President of the IUF Women s Committee and member of the Administrative Committee where she stayed until the 2012 Congress. At the last EFFAT Congress, Therese was elected Deputy President. In 2007, Therese was the main founder of Fair Travel, a Swedish sustainable tourism network, in which she is still active. Therese was elected VicePresident of HRF in 2008 and reelected in Therese was recently elected as President of HRF. Inge Gielis is Deputy President of the EFFAT Youth Committee. Inge works for ACV Voeding en Diensten/CSC Alimentation et Services where she is responsible for several sectors, one of which is the food industry. She is also responsible for organising young shop stewards.

8 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 P a ge 8 EFFAT adopts nine important political resolutions On 20 November, the EF- FAT Congress adopted six important political resolutions. Motion 3, Towards a fair and decent EU labour market, acknowledges that one of the greatest challenges of the EU is that it has besides national labour markets a European one, but that so far, the EU labor market is lacking coherent regulation and protection. The resolution lays the foundations for combating social dumping and unfair competition in the internal market through the following key proposals: a) respect of international social standards by EU law b) equal treatment as the key principle for mobile workers c) more and renewed respect for social dialogue at national and EU level d) end of the European Commission s deregulation agenda e) robust enforcement of EU labour law and proper implementation in Member States f) mandatory joint and several liability, and eradication of letterbox companies g) legislation on subcontracting. Through the resolution, the 4th EFFAT Congress resolves to undertake indepth discussions on the above and put forward concrete proposals for a stronger EU labour market, noting EFFAT s existing work through the Working Group on Precarious Work (a joint initiative of the European trade union federations), and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) Working Group on Labour and Internal Market Legislation. Motion 4, A socially, ecologically and economically sustainable industrial and food policy in Europe, submitted by NGG, notes that the European food and drink industry is the largest industrial sector in the European Union, employing more than 4.5 million people in 27 EU Member States, including 4.1 million dependent employees. Unfortunately, the industrial sector in Europe has suffered years of neglect in the hope that everything could be left to market forces. The resolution mandates the General Secretariat and the member unions to draw up a forward-looking initiative for industrial policy in the European food and drink industry. This initiative will serve as a basis for enhancing dialogue with the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States, and should be broadly discussed on the European level at an industrial policy conference. The General Secretariat and the member unions will use a coordinated strategy for seeking dialogue with Member State governments and the European Commission. Motion 5, Fighting precarious employment and defending job security in Europe, submitted by NGG, notes that the crisis is far from over and that workers rights are being undermined, in some places drastically, and fundamental rights are being systematically abused. The resolution calls on European and national lawmakers to stop the infringement of worker s rights and to stand up for the promotion and defence of fundamental rights. The members of the Troika must abide by the social objectives enshrined in the European treaties. Motion 6, Stop the EU- USA free trade agreement TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership), submitted by the NGG, concerns negotiations currently underway for an EU-US trade and investment agreement. The resolution recalls the demands of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) for the negotiations to be transparent, attain a gold standard, and exclude investor-state dispute settlement, public services, and food and agriculture. Noting that the European Commission and national governments that support it are unwilling to rule out investor protection and enhance transparency, the resolution states that EFFAT will take a stand in the ETUC and against the EU, to call a halt to the TTIP negotiations unless it can be guaranteed that the essential trade union

9 P a ge 9 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 demands will be met before, during and after the conclusion of any agreement. Motion 7, Promoting workers rights through sectoral collective bargaining, submitted by CFE-CGC AGRI, CFE- CGC INOVA, CFTC- AGRI, FGA-CFDT, FGTA-FO, observes that employers and governments are using the economic and financial crisis and differences in competitiveness between countries as an excuse to challenge workers social rights and wages. The resolution states that the Congress is in favour of harmonising employment and working conditions upwards, which dovetails with the ETUC s suggestions of giving new impetus to activities through major investments and supporting purchasing power. The resolution reaffirms the Congress position that sectoral social dialogue helps to foster genuine social cohesion, which is vital for restoring citizens and workers confidence in the European Union. Motion 8, Strengthening social dialogue, notes that there have been Social Dialogue (SD) Committees in the EFFAT sectors for decades now. It further notes the Congress concern that certain members of the European Commission and various Member States are calling into question and even demonstrating a desire to reduce the role, rights and responsibilities of the social partners and their say in developing social policy. The resolution calls on the Commission must fulfil its obligations under the Treaties and promote the development of effective SD at EU level and respect the autonomy of the social partners. Three additional resolutions put forward by affiliates while the Congress was underway were also approved. The first, submitted by LIVS Sweden expresses full support for the workers of Hong Kong seeking democracy and political reform. It demands that the Chinese National People s Congress withdraws its proposal for political elections in Hong Kong passed on 31 August 2014 and instead introduces measures that will ensure free, fair and genuine political elections in Hong Kong. Another, initiated by FITAG UGT, Spain, extends its full support and solidarity to nearly 1,000 workers of the Campofrio processing plant in Burgos, Spain, that was destroyed by fire on 16 November It further asks that, during the inactivity period while the plant is being rebuilt, affected workers could assist educational and vocational training programs to improve their skills, and demands that management, the Chairman of Campofrio, and public administrations adhere to the commitments they have announced. The final, from FEAGRA- CCOO, in response to the Russian import ban on perishable foods, requests that the European Commission takes concrete action to: 1. change the rules adopted to alleviate the effects of the Russian veto on European agro-food products, including the affected workers of the agro-food sector 2. set up observatories to carry out analysis, monitoring, and proposals in relation to the impact of the aforementioned agrofood boycott.

10 E F F AT News E F F AT Con gress 2014 P a ge 10 Draft agenda - 21 November 9 am Session: Enough of their crisis, back to our future! prepared by the EFFAT Youth Committee Chairperson: Blaine Kilgallon, UNITE Discussion Adoption of a pledge 11 am Coffee break am Session: Gender equality now! Equal pay for women and men prepared by the EFFATWomen s Committee Chairperson: NN, President of EFFATWomen s Committee Discussion Adoption of recommendations pm Lunch break 2 pm Speaker: Rudolf Hundstorfer, Austrian Federal Minister of Labour, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection 2.15 pm Session: For a fair and decent European labour market Panel: Sergio Gutiérrez Prieto (Member of the European Parliament, S&D Group) Erich Foglar (ÖGB President) Therese Guovelin (EFFAT Deputy President) Inge Gielis (Vice-President of the EFFAT Youth Committee) Moderator: Maria Jepsen, Director of Research Department of ETUI/ETUC Discussion 4 pm Closing words by the EFFAT President 4.30 pm End of the 4th EFFAT Congress About EFFAT EFFAT represents the interests of more than 2.6 million members, affiliated to 118 national trade unions in 38 European countries in agriculture, food production and tourism. EFFAT was founded in 2000 when the European Committee of Food, Catering and Allied Workers (ECF) merged with the European Federation of Agricultural Workers' Union (EFA). It is a single umbrella organisation serving trade unions throughout the food-processing chain from farm to fork. EFFAT is a member of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and also a regional organisation within the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF). More: Contact European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions Rue Fossé-aux-Loups 38, box 3 B-1000 Brussels Tel. +32 (0) Fax +32 (0) effat@effat.org