Trades union desk: Tackling the ‘assault on social Europe’

ICTU’s Macdara Doyle welcomes the campaign for a European social compact to restore the social rights ignored in the rush to appease the markets.

If the euro zone continues on its current trajectory, then some form of break up or dissolution seems inevitable. That of course would have profound implications for the European Union itself.

To date, all efforts and energy have focussed on protecting a criminally reckless financial system from the consequences of its own appalling behaviour. Ireland is but an example writ large, where heaven and earth have been moved and the fundamentals of capitalism turned on its head, in order to save irresponsible institutions.

Meanwhile, the bill for this fiasco has been dispatched directly to the taxpayer. People, not private banks, are bearing the brunt of this crisis. And the whole exercise is utterly self-defeating, as austerity sucks money from the economy and further austerity is required in turn.

Part of the problem is that the current crisis is being exploited, in Ireland and across Europe, by deeply ideological opportunists who believe, to varying degrees, that public spending and the State itself are at the root of all social and economic evil. In the United States they align themselves to the Tea Party. In Europe they appear to have embedded themselves into key institutions and ruling political parties. Thus, we have a massive crisis that erupted within our private banking sector and went on to damage and tarnish all else. Yet the focus of political debate since 2008 has been on dumping labour market protections for workers (dressed up as ‘reform’), cutting wages and attacking welfare.

In Ireland, having guaranteed the huge and unknown debts of private banks, the wise men and women of the previous administration then went on to cut the minimum wage. How that was supposed to address the crippling bank crisis has never been explained. Thankfully, the current Government reversed that particularly nasty cut. But this is just a microcosm of what is happening today across the euro zone, where a fully-fledged assault on what remains of social Europe is under way.

Today it seems clear that economic rights have been granted precedence over social rights, resulting in a clear diminution of social protections.

However, it was precisely this project, the building and strengthening of social Europe, that so enthused so many advocates for Europe to begin with, particularly the European trade union movement. And its support was critical to the success of the project in the early years.
In many respects, current events represent nothing less than a hollowing out of the European project, as ‘markets’ are deemed more worthy than citizens or societies. Slowly but surely, whatever democratic legitimacy was enjoyed by the European Union is being eroded by technocrats and Tea Party types.

But now the European trade union movement has shouted stop. Earlier this year, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), to which Congress is affiliated, unanimously adopted a proposal to campaign for a new social compact for Europe. This decision represents a significant challenge to the forces that have thus far dominated the debate on Europe’s future.

The ETUC’s declaration, adopted in June 2012, said: “We see that the post-war economic and social settlement, which led to the creation of the European Union and the European social model, is threatened. This unique social model has brought considerable gains for citizens and workers and has allowed us to rebuild from crisis to prosperity.”

According to the resolution, a social compact would focus on “improving living and working conditions, quality employment, fair wages, equal treatment, effective social dialogue, trade union and other human rights, quality public services, social protection.”
In other words, almost everything that has been ignored, diminished or cut across Europe in recent years. Seems the Tea Party types finally have some opposition.

For more on the social compact for Europe visit www.etuc.org/a/10024