Mapping a future for social Europe: speech by Billy Hayes

Keynote speech to TUC conference

Mapping a future for social Europe

18 April 2008

TUC spokesperson on Europe and CWU General Secretary

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Chair, colleagues,

Love it or hate it, the EU isn't about to go away.

It affects us in all sorts of ways, and we need to be proactive and not just reactive.

We have European Parliament elections coming up in just over a year's time, in June 2009, and those elections will be crucial to the future of Europe.

In the past we have seen some voters using these elections to express their feelings about all sorts of issues, rather than the future of Europe.

In the old days that might not have mattered.

But now the European Parliament has much more influence. We saw it used positively in the co-decision process that drew the teeth of the Services Directive, where the European Parliament backed the trade unions against the Governments and employers of Europe.

The Lisbon treaty will make the European Parliament even more important, giving it the power of co-decision with the Council of Ministers in more areas.

If left wing parties win in 2009, it will be possible to use the European Parliament to check and even reverse the current neo-liberal European agenda - and not just through co-decision, but through changes in the Commission too.

Under the new treaty it is the Parliament which has the final say in the choice of Commission president. If the PES wins, it is very likely that Mr Barroso will be replaced by someone from the left.

In that context, then, what are the issues that trade unions should be pushing?

Let me make one broad point, and then some specific suggestions.

My broad point is the importance of defending the European social model.

Yes, we have been unhappy with the way things have been going in recent years - very little new social legislation and a drive to liberalise and to deregulate.

But what we have in Europe is still far better than what we see elsewhere in the world - and the fact that social Europe exists has been very important for our struggle to maintain social Britain.

Do you ever wonder why Rupert Murdoch is so anti-European? Let me hazard a guess.

In the world today there are really only two models: the European one and the American one - or the social market economy versus jungle capitalism.

No, the Murdochs of this world don't want strong unions, social partnership and collective bargaining; they don't want European Works Councils; they don't want strong public services; they don't want strong environmental protections, health and safety or the rest of European social legislation; and the Rupert Murdoch of Page 3 fame certainly doesn't want equality.

They want the US model every time.

I'm not saying Europe is perfect, it's not; but I am saying that it's a damn sight better than what the American worker has to put up with.

Which brings me to Mr Cameron. In a speech given on 27 March in the City - where else? - Mr Cameron said that a Tory government would 'reverse the historic mistake of the Labour government in signing the EU social chapter'.

What do he and his party really object to in the social chapter?

The right to time off when you have a baby? The right to four weeks' paid leave? Or the same health and safety rules across Europe so that workers are protected and the cheapskate cowboys can't undercut their rivals by lowering standards?

Mr Cameron says he realises that it could be difficult to persuade all the other 26 member states to agree. There, he is right. Why on earth should the rest of Europe agree to Britain competing on the cheap?

In fact the situation would be immensely more complicated than even Mr Cameron realises. The so-called 'social chapter' is only a small part of the treaty. It is, in fact, only a part of the section on social policy.

If he wants to repeal the working time directive and take away our holidays, he will also have to ask for major changes in that part of the treaty dealing with the internal market (hold on: aren't the Tories supposed to be in favour of the internal market?!)

And if he wants to repeal the posting of workers directive, he will have to ask as well for major changes in that part of the treaty dealing with free movement.

In reality, Britain could only withdraw from the social chapter by withdrawing from Europe altogether.

Perhaps that's the plan - I certainly wouldn't put that beyond William Hague.

Of course, some of our own people want that too. I think their motives are quite different, of course - they certainly don't want the triumph of the US model in the UK, and they don't really want to lock our borders and throw away the key, along with migrant workers and global trade.

But I think many trade unionists are fed-up to the back teeth with privatisation, marketisation and neo-liberalism generally. I certainly am.

We're fed up with being told all the time that globalisation is good for everyone when the benefits keep going into the same people's pockets - the tax dodging super-rich who believe that playing by the rules is only for the little people.

And we are also profoundly concerned by recent judgements of the European Court of Justice - I'll come back to this in a moment.

But what do we do when we have a government that does things we don't like? Unfortunately we have a lot of experience of that.

Do we abolish the country, or do we try to change the government?

I think the same applies to Europe. The point is, to change it.

The EU isn't going to go way. In or out we would have to deal with it - ask the Norwegians. They're not members of the EU but apart from not having a vote they are bound by practically all of the EU's rules.

So let me now list some of the specific changes I would like to see in the EU and in the UK's attitude to the EU - and I invite you to add your own suggestions.

First, the legal disaster created by the Viking, Laval and now Ruffert judgments in the European Court of Justice must be sorted out.

Their effect is to deny the right of trade unions to stop employers stealing a competitive advantage by undercutting wages and conditions. We can't walk away from this - and we in the UK can't deal with it by ourselves. We need to fight shoulder to shoulder with our continental colleagues.

The ETUC is proposing a fundamental revision of the posted workers directive, a social progress clause which expressly guarantees trade union and collective bargaining rights in a way that the Court can't ignore, and, if necessary, a similar clause in the European treaties. They are right to propose all this and they must have our support.

Second, the right of member states to provide quality public services for their citizens must be reasserted and freed from neo-liberal challenges from the EU.

It could well be that the new protocol to the Lisbon treaty on services of general interest will provide the basis for a new approach. But if not, we need a guarantee that voters should be able to decide what services are provided by the public sector.

Third, the UK should embrace the Charter of Fundamental Rights on the same terms as other member states. The government are now saying they don't have an opt-out: well, prove it!

It's nonsense and demeaning for the government to imply that the UK can only be competitive by offering worse conditions to its citizens than apply across the rest of Europe.

Fourth, I'm afraid that there are many signs that the financial crisis is turning into a world economic crisis that will destroy millions of workers' jobs.

Anglo-Saxon, casino capitalism, with its deregulation, privatisation, short-termism, and now collapses and failures, is no longer looking so good, is it?

In contrast, much of continental Europe is looking better, and certainly coordinated EU action to deal with the crisis offers the best way forward.

Fifth, we need a new and strong EU social action programme - to deal with the social problems caused by globalisation and to help restore the faith of working people in Europe.

Hopefully, by the time of the next Parliamentary elections, new directives will have been approved on working time, on temporary agency work and on European Works Councils.

But as the ETUC's statement on social policy, which has been distributed today, makes clear, we also need action on health and safety, pensions, migration, equal opportunities ...

I could go on. But let me stop now and invite others to put forward their ideas and proposals.