Abstract
Unions and pro-labour intellectuals have been deeply committed to a social Europe with unions as a driving force. At several moments and on various levels, these personalities have played key roles in the construction of unionist views and policies for an integrated Europe and in the establishment of the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC). The present chapter draws upon my studies in the archives of the Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro (CGIL) and the Nordic labour movement, alongside documents from the archives of trade union leaders and economists such as Emilio Gabaglio, Bruno Trentin and Franco Archibugi. It helps reconstruct ETUC’s development, building on the work of past scholars who have long considered the vast and groundbreaking investment plans of the European Economic Community (EEC) to have been key to the Confederation’s existence. The centrality of the EEC’s plans is so apparent that, in reconstructing the history of European integration, we must make note of the complete rejection of the plans Jacques Delors later presented to the European Commission, or those that Allan Larsson brought before the Party of European Socialists (PES). ETUC’s actions responded to the structural weakness of wages, and this is of central importance to our understanding of the nature of social dialogue and of ETUC’s practices and responses to European integration.
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Notes
- 1.
Andrea Ciampani, ‘La rappresentanza dei lavoratori nelle fondamenta dell’Europa sociale’, in L’Europa sociale e la Confederazione Europea dei Sindacati, eds. A. Ciampani and E. Gabaglio (Bologna: il Mulino, 2010), 57–59.
- 2.
Laurent Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World (City: Routledge, 2018), 37–53.
- 3.
Harold Mock, ‘A Post-National Europe: Brandt’s Vision for the European Community between the Superpowers’, in Willy Brandt and International Relations, eds. Bernd Rother and Klaus Larres (City: Bloomsbury, 2019), 88–92 stresses Brandt’s will to replace ‘superpower influence by reinvigorating European institutions’ and ‘discarding that unimaginative principle that nations with different social and economic systems cannot live side by side without being in grave conflict’, implying that while communist systems could undergo liberalising reforms, Western Europe would keep reforming capitalism in a social democratic direction.
- 4.
Antonio Varsori and Lorenzo Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, in The European Commission 1986–2000: History and Memories of an Institution, eds. Eric Bussière, Piers Ludlow, Federico Romero, Dieter Schlenker, Vincent Dujardin and Antonio Varsori (City: European Commission, year), 403–404. An embryonic social dimension consisting of purely advisory committees on social aspects of market integration was regarded as insufficient. The existing committees were: Vocational Training (since 1963); Freedom of Movement for Workers (from 1968); Social Security for Migrant Workers (from 1971); Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work (from 1974); Equal Opportunities for Men and Women (from 1982). See also Christophe Degryse and Pierre Tilly, 1973–2013: 40 Years of History of the European Trade Union Confederation (Brussels: ETUI, 2013), 94.
- 5.
Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World, 40.
- 6.
Piero Boni in Archivio CGIL (Confederazione generale italiana del lavoro), Organi statutari, Comitato direttivo, 21 settembre 1973.
- 7.
Ciampani, ‘La rappresentanza dei lavoratori nelle fondamenta dell’Europa sociale’, 62–69.
- 8.
Ibid., 62–63.
- 9.
Ibid., 66–67.
- 10.
Ibid., 68–69.
- 11.
Antonio Varsori, ‘The Trade Unions and the European Community/Union: From Delors to Prodi’, in The European Commission 1986–2000: History and Memories of an Institution, 414.
- 12.
Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World, 46.
- 13.
Ibid., 48–50.
- 14.
Stuart Holland (ed.), Beyond Capitalist Planning (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978).
- 15.
Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World, 51–52.
- 16.
Balder Asmussen, ‘Nyt syn på Anker Jørgensensøkonomiske politik’, Historisk Tidskrift , 110, no. 2 (2010), 454–455.
- 17.
Archivio CGIL, Comitato direttivo, 20–21 settembre 1973.
- 18.
Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World, 137–141.
- 19.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 95.
- 20.
Warlouzet, Governing Europe in a Globalized World, 137–141.
- 21.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 96.
- 22.
Luciano Lama, in Archivio CGIL, Organi statutari, Comitato direttivo, 23–25 gennaio 1974.
- 23.
ETUI, Keynes Plus: A Participatory Economy (Brussels: ETUI, 1979), 40–41.
- 24.
Part of the labour Left was converted to more positive views on Europe by these intellectual connections: see S. Holland, ‘Out of Crisis: International Economic Recovery’, in The Future of the Left, ed. J. Curran (Cambridge: Polity, 1984), 263–264.
- 25.
This definition can be found in J. Lepeyre, The European Social Dialogue: The History of a Social Innovation (1985–2003) (City: Publisher, 2018), 37.
- 26.
Archivio CGIL, Fondo personale Trentin, Conference sur l’emploi, printemps 1984, Projet de document.
- 27.
Clas-Eric Odhner, Europas arbetslöshet kan halveras, “Lo-Tidningen”, 3 February 1989.
- 28.
The inception was unsuccessful: Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 406.
- 29.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 96–98. According to Pauli Kettunen, ‘Corporate Citizenship and Social Partnership’, in People, Citizen, Nation, eds. Lars-Folke Landgren and Pirkko Hautamäki(Helsinki: Renvall Institute, 2005), 34–36, ‘Partnership’ does not express ‘differing interest’ but ‘a communitarian idea of Labour relations’ devoid of a ‘criterion of immanent critique’.
- 30.
The ‘joint opinions’ concerned social dialogue and new technologies (12 November 1985), cooperative growth and employment strategy (6 November 1986), training and motivation, information and consultation (6 March 1987). Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 96–98.
- 31.
Jean Lapeyre, The European Social Dialogue: The History of a Social Innovation (Brussels: ETUI, 2018), 62.
- 32.
The document of the commission on ‘The Social Dimension of the Internal Market’ was intended as a step on the way to a ‘Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers’. Although it addressed the necessity that ‘the economic measures to be taken’ must not ‘affect the standards of social protection attained at the in the Member States’, it did not satisfy Hinterscheid. Leif Hägg, ‘Ilska i europafacket. Nu väntar tre års kamp’, LO-Tidningen, 21 October 1988. See also Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 41–42.
- 33.
Hägg, ‘Ilska i europafacket’.
- 34.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 407.
- 35.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 109–101.
- 36.
Mario Telò, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati tra programmi e azione sovranazionale’, in Sinistra europea. Annali 1988–89, ed. M. Telò (CRS: FrancoAngeli, 1989).
- 37.
Emilio Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati: un attore sociale nell’integrazione europea’, in ‘L'Europa sociale e la Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, eds. Andrea Ciampani and Emilio Gabaglio (Bologna: il Mulino, 2010), 89–90.
- 38.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 410. The ‘Agreement on the role of the social partners in the development of the Community’s social dimension’. The Heads of State or Government included it, almost unedited, in the Maastricht Treaty.
- 39.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 93.
- 40.
Ibid., 83, 85–86. The same view can be found in Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’.
- 41.
Quoted in Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 101.
- 42.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 95–96. The 1991 ETUC Luxembourg Congress had been an essential precondition since it ‘improved the representativeness of its Executive Committee, admitted the European industry federations, transformed the Finance and General Purposes Committee into a Steering Committee and boosted staff numbers in the General Secretariat’ (Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 44).
- 43.
In 2013, 42 committees functioned in different sectors. Since some were more affected by European policies or faced international competition more than others, sectoral social dialogue was quite diverse. See Degryse and Tilly, 1973-2013, 102.
- 44.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 96–97.
- 45.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 102.
- 46.
Gabaglio,‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 92.
- 47.
See ‘Chapter IV: Solidarity’ in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of The European Union (2000/C 364/01), Articles 27–38.
- 48.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 94–95.
- 49.
Archivio personale di Emilio Gabaglio, Lettera 17–11-1999.
- 50.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 97–98.
- 51.
Elena Polidori, ‘Bisogna colpire salari e pensioni’, La Repubblica, 3 June 1992.
- 52.
Memorandum de la CES à la Presidence Allemande Du Conseil Europeen, Archivio personale di Emilio Gabaglio, 2.
- 53.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 416–417.
- 54.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 100.
- 55.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 123.
- 56.
Delors’ approach was ‘yes to the large European market, but with a social dimension; yes to corporate restructuring, as long as workers were informed and consulted; yes to the expansion of atypical forms of employment, but subject to negotiations under social dialogue’. Also, the employment purposes of the plan were ‘hampered by the fact that the Member States were … reducing public spending with a view to economic and monetary union. At the same time, some of the proposed labour market reforms were liable to curtail workers’ rights without improving the quality or quantity of jobs’. See Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 38, 48, 49. Swedish LO-Tidningen had previously written: ‘if the whole question of social dimension had been directly interlinked with economic liberalisations … This would … have increased both ETUC’s and Delors’ possibilities to lend force to their words’. LO-Tidningen, ‘Europeiskt bakslag i rättvisefrågorna’, 14 October 1988, 2.
- 57.
Commission of European Communities, ‘White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment: The Challenges and Ways Forward into the 21st Century’, December 1993.
- 58.
Andreas Aust, From ‘Eurokeynesianism’ to the ‘Third Way’, in Social Democratic Party Policies in Contemporary.
Europe, eds. Giuliano Bonoli and Martin Powell (London-New York: Routledge, 2004).
- 59.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 417–418.
- 60.
PES, European Employment Initiative (Larsson Report), Brussels 1993.
- 61.
Ibid., 8.
- 62.
Ibid., 18.
- 63.
David J. Bailey, The Political Economy of European Social Democracy: A Critical Realist Approach (London-New York: Taylor & Francis, 2009), 132–133.
- 64.
Corinne Gobin, ‘La Confederation européenne des syndicats: engagement syndical et construction européeenne’, in.
La gauche face au mutations en Europe, eds. Pascal Delwit and Jean-Michel De Waele (Brussels: Editions de.
l’Universitè libre de Bruxelles, 1993), 85–99.
- 65.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 157.
- 66.
Allan Larsson, ‘How to Set Europe in the Fast Lane?’, paper for the conference ‘EU: A Global Player?’ (Vienna: Karl Renner Institut, 10–12 November 2005), 9–10.
- 67.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 417–418.
- 68.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 106–108.
- 69.
Varsori and Mechi, ‘European Social Policy’, 418–419.
- 70.
Presidency Conclusions, Lisbon European Council, 23–24 March 2000.
- 71.
Magnus Ryner, ‘Europe’s Ordoliberal Iron Cage’, Journal of European Public Policy 22, no. 2 (2015), 275–294;
AlessandroSomma, ‘Private Law as Biopolitics’, Law and Contemporary Problems 76, no. 2 (2013), 105–116; Bernard.
H. Moss, ‘The European Community as Monetarist Construction’, Journal of European Area Studies 8, no. 2 (2000),
247–265.
- 72.
Paul James Cardwell and Holly Snaith, ‘“There’s a Brand New Talk, but It’s Not Very Clear”: Can the.
Contemporary EU Really be Characterized as Ordoliberal?’, Journal of Common Market Studies 5 (2018), 1053–1069.
- 73.
Sebastian Dullien and Ulrike Guerot, ‘The Long Shadow of Ordoliberalism: Germany’s Approach to the Euro.
Crisis’, ECFR/49 February 2012.
- 74.
Laurent Warlouzet, ‘The EEC/EU as an Evolving Compromise between French Dirigism and German Ordoliberalism (1957–1995)’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 57, no. 1 (2019), 77–93, although the author seems to concede that interventionism was significantly stronger at the beginning of the integration process in 1992.
- 75.
Jotte Mulder, ‘(Re)Conceptualising a Social Market Economy for the EU Internal Market’, Utrecht Law Review 2 (2019).
- 76.
Paolo Borioni, ‘The Nordic Model in Ordo-Liberal Europe: From Welfare Parity to Social Hierarchy?’, in The.
Relational Nordic Welfare State, Between Utopia and Ideology, eds. Sakari Hänninen, Kirsi-Maria Lehtelä and Paula
Saikkonen Cheltenham-Northampton Elgar, 2019.
- 77.
See Gareth Dale, ‘Justificatory Fables of Ordoliberalism: Laissez-faire and the ‘Third Way”’, Critical Sociology 7–8.
(2019), 1047–1060, for whom only through ‘ordoliberal triangulation’ can ordoliberalism ever be (as for some centrist social democrats) a ‘third way’ between planning and laissez-faire liberalism.
- 78.
‘There should be a strengthening and modernisation of the distinctive European approach to organising the economy and society … embedding core European values that all Europeans care about. The issue is delivering on the promises and undertakings that have been made, and that will entail significant change.’ Report from the High Level Group chaired by Wim Kok, 2004, 44–45.
- 79.
Gabaglio, my interview, 2020.
- 80.
It first became binding as incorporated in the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 (Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 106) stating (Article 151) the EU is pursuing ‘the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions … proper social protection … development of human resources with a view to lasting high employment’, while Article 152 stated that ‘the Union recognises and promotes the role of the social partners at its level … facilitating … dialogue between the social partners … Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment shall contribute to social dialogue’.
- 81.
Gabaglio, my interview, 2020.
- 82.
Lepeyre, The European Social Dialogue, 245–246.
- 83.
This was not a mere detail for the ETUC Executive Committee, since ‘the advantages the Constitution brings for working people and citizens are real and certainly an improvement over the present provisions’. See Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 55.
- 84.
Lars Magnusson, Henning Jørgensen and Jon Erik Dølvik, The Nordic Approach to Growth and Welfare:
European Lessons to be Learned? (ETUI: Brussels, 2008), 18.
- 85.
Henning Jørgensen and Per Kongshøj Madsen, ‘Flexicurity and Beyond: Reflections in the Nature and Future of a Political Celebrity’, Flexicurity and Beyond, Henning Jørgensen and Per Kongshøj Madsen (eds.): Flexicurity and Beyond, Copenhagen: DJØF Publishing, 2008), 25.
- 86.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 102.
- 87.
Gabaglio, ‘La Confederazione europea dei sindacati’, 108–109.
- 88.
Philip Rathgeb and Arianna Tassinari, ‘How the Eurozone Disempowers Trade Unions: The Political Economy of Competitive Internal Devaluation’, Socio-Economic Review vol., no. (year), 1–28.
- 89.
Varsori, ‘The Trade Unions and the European Community/Union’, 414–415.
- 90.
Degryse and Tilly, 1973–2013, 109–110.
- 91.
Sante Cruciani, ‘L’evoluzione dei sindacati europei’, in Europa, (Rome: Istituto enciclopedia italiana, 2018).
- 92.
One of the countless examples is when John Monks claimed that the EU is ‘on a collision course with Social Europe’. ETUC press release, ‘EU on a ‘Collision Course” with Social Europe and the Autonomy of Collective Bargaining’, 4 February 2011, found at http://etuc.org.
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Borioni, P. (2023). The European Trade Unions Confederation: A Labour Movement Among EU Institutions and Their Constraints. In: Di Donato, M., Pons, S. (eds) European Integration and the Global Financial Crisis. Security, Conflict and Cooperation in the Contemporary World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06797-6_8
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