Stockholm, 8/05/2007
To be checked against delivery
My first Congress after my election as General Secretary of the ETUC was the TCO Congress in 2003 and four years later, I am pleased to be back. I am pleased too to see the progress made by Swedish trade unionism in the past 4 years but not so pleased to have to share your apprehension about the harmful changes being made by the current Swedish Government.
I hope that they can be persuaded to think afresh and to recognise what trade unionism has done to make Sweden one of the most successful and, at the same time, one of the nicest countries in the world, an exemplar that others look up as a model of what a successful society should be like.
We have plenty of other models in the world. Some are successful. And some are nice. Few combine the two as sweetly as Sweden.
By weakening the welfare system, the unemployment benefits and employment services, your Government is increasing the risk for workers facing globalisation. And with such changes it is not the good and decent that will take advantage of globalisation but the bad and disreputable. It will be the speculators, the short termists, who try to benefit, often at the expense of those who recognise long-term commitments and responsibilities, the traditional and much admired qualities of Swedish social model.
Yet Swedish business seems transfixed by what is happening in the Anglo Saxon world. Now I'll tell you what is happening there. On the one hand, roaring profits in financial services, mostly declared “offshore” by the way (ie in tax havens); asset stripping; low investment levels, both in people and technology; a balance of payments deficit and low productivity; rapidly rising inequality linked to weak collective bargaining.
Good for the rich and talented but not for the poor. Good for Mister Rausing and brother - and for the others who have relocated. Good for Sven Goran Eriksson, the least likely Swedish sex symbol to have hit England from Sweden since the Vikings.
But for the majority, it is not good news to fall into the hands of hedge funds and private equity, to have to make profits of 20% per year, every year, or be taken over, broken up, asset stripped and sold on.
So, much as I love my own country, don't fall for the propaganda - and more to the point, stop Sweden going Anglo-Saxon. We need you as you are, not substituting flexibility for flexicurity, keeping collective bargaining central, not marginal.
I am not negative about flexicurity. I just want to recapture the debate from those who want to concentrate on reducing employment protection and unemployment benefit entitlements, and from those who are giving the impression that the way to tackle the issue of precarious work is to make regular work more precarious. We all risk becoming outsiders that way.
We face some tough challenges but we should not be hesitant about them. They are better in many respects than the challenges faced by our predecessors who were confronted by mass unemployment, grinding poverty, the ravages of war, post-war reconstruction, the later overthrowing of dictatorship and the reunification of Europe. And what our predecessors could do with the challenges of the past, we can do with the challenges of the present and the future.
The first challenge is that Europe's citizens have become more sceptical about the creation of a stronger, more integrated Europe. That's evident in Sweden. The result is a developing public mood, too, which is more susceptible to the simplicities of nationalist and protectionist rhetoric than to the more complex processes of strengthening European integration; and there is a mood less willing to recognise that globalisation has benefits, as well as drawbacks.
I have warned the authorities in Europe that if the judgment of the European Court of Justice goes wrong in the Vaxholm/Laval case, those feelings will intensify and not just in Sweden and the Nordic countries.
In the economic sphere, unemployment has been too high in many countries, and while there has been recent, welcome improvements, many of the new jobs are precarious and low paid. Additionally, real wage growth been negligible in some key countries. More generally in nearly all high income countries, the share of wages and salaries in the gross domestic product has been declining. As Warren Buffet (the American investor) reportedly said recently - “there is a class war and my class is winning”.
It is also evident, as I said earlier, that there is a trend towards more and more short-termism among financial investors with private equity, hedge funds and others treating enterprises primarily as vehicles for speculation rather than investing in new products, new services, high productivity, and sustainable technologies.
Environmentally, there is heightened awareness among Europe's citizens of the threats posed by global warming. But to date, the efforts made to combat this by the European authorities do not equal the scale of the challenge. Europe should be in the lead in tackling these problems and in some areas like regulation of dangerous chemicals, it is. Progress at European level was also made recently on expanding sources of renewable energy. But generally, there are wide variations between member states and too little concerted action at European level.
Social Europe too has been a casualty. Virtually no new legal measures to support European workers have been introduced over the past 4 years. A majority of the Commission, most employers, and some member states have combined to stop progress on measures such as working time and temporary agency workers. Indeed, at times, some Governments have questioned whether there is a Social Europe at all, ignoring the 60 or so legal measures which have been introduced already on health and safety, European Works Councils, equality and information and consultation. Instead they have argued that Europe does not need a social dimension, carelessly forgetting the need to win popular support for the project of European integration.
The result is that Europe has been damaged recently. As Jacques Delors has said “no-one falls in love with a single market”. Social Europe has been crucial to a successful Europe in previous years. It must become so again.
Despite all the difficulties, the ETUC remains absolutely committed to work for a Europe which is both “more” and “better”; a Europe which is integrated around rights and values, a Europe which lives up to the best UN and ILO standards.
Our Congress will be held next month in Seville. It will be a new stage in our development towards an organisation which is stronger, more cohesive, and more influential in benefiting the workers of Europe and the world. Moving on to the offensive needs an organisation which can criticise and mobilise, of course, but can also propose, negotiate, and act.
We must develop an effective strategy of organisation to help affiliates increase the numbers of members. And, also, we need a stronger ETUC, more able to lead campaigns and to promote more solidarity - organisation and recruitment is fundamental.
Next as we move towards a more European labour market, we need more and better jobs, full employment and European minimum standards in areas such as working conditions, trade union rights, and health and safety, combat and reverse the rising trend towards precarious work. We do not want migrant workers to be treated as second class citizens. And sooner rather than later, we must look at wide differences in pay levels, especially between women and men.
Friends, these are great challenges - and there are more. I do not underestimate them but we can overcome them and we will build a Europe capable of controlling globalisation, not being its victim; a Europe which is generous within and outside Europe to less fortunate people, continents and regions. Europe's workers and the workers of the world deserve no less.
Good luck for the future.