European public workers seek alliances to fight austerity

 Unions are experimenting with new ways to rally support.

by Ish Theilheimer, video by Samantha Bayard, transcripton by Ruth Cooper

[On Feb 6, 2013, Straight Goods News interviewed Richard Pond of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) at CUPE's first CUPE National Bargaining Conference. We discussed what Canadian labour can learn from European labour organizations about bargaining for public sector workers, in the current wave of austerity-driven cuts to public services.]

Richard Pond:
Well I was quite surprised, going to the sessions, yesterday and today, that a lot of what's being said you could translate quite easily across Europe — the same kind of austerity policies imposed by government, the same kind of messages coming from government attacking public sector unions.  I think the only difference, really, is the scale. The scale in countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal is much, much more intense that in Canada, and in other countries maybe less so.  I was quite surprised, but it seemed to be very much the same kind of environment and the same challenges for unions.

Straight Goods News:
Greece, Portugal, and Spain, the countries you mentioned, these are countries with strong labour traditions and strong unions.  The attacks are because of the fiscal situation, I presume?

Richard Pond:
That's right.  The problem is not just that it's the national government attacking public service unions; it's that national government is being pushed by and supported by, what in Europe is called the Troika, the famous Troika.  So that's the European Commission (EC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the European Central Bank (ECB).  Within the kind of message of austerity — the idea that these countries have to cut back on their public spending — is also the idea that in those countries, because they have strong unions, strong public unions, they are legitimate targets.
 

Straight Goods News:
And what kinds of strategies are unions in Europe adopting in the face of all this austerity? 

Richard Pond:
I think the first thing to say is that they are using traditional tactics.  I think what's remarkable, certainly what you see in Greece, is that the unions are continuing to mobilize for strike action. We've seen over 24 general strikes in Greece since the crisis began and even this week a further strike in support of transport workers who were attacked by the government for going on strike.  That's workers coming out — power workers and other workers — coming out in support of transport workers. 

So you have traditional methods, but what you also have — I think what's clear from Spain & Portugal, in particular — is that the unions are saying that this is a citizens' struggle as well, because of the impact of austerity on public services.  So they are joining, because of the fact that it's not just about public sector workers and their paying conditions, it's also about the quantity and quality of the public services they provide.
 

Straight Goods News:
In Greece, I don't know the Spanish and Portuguese political situation but the Greek political situation is quite well known here.  A government has been elected, it's committed to the austerity program.  What effect can general strikes have when you have a government like that?
 

Richard Pond:
I think the fact that there have been so many suggests that actually you are not going to necessarily immediately change what the government's doing. But I think it's important for people to see that there is a fight back.  I think the fact that also in Greece we've seen the growth of a left wing political party … I think that people think that it is important to continue to fight back.  And I think that you've seen that in other countries as well. 

Although Greece, Portugal, and Spain are facing some of the toughest measures, these kinds of austerity attacks are also going on in the UK, Italy.  Ireland is also under a tremendous amount of pressure.  It's right across mainly southern Europe but also central Europe and you see the unions taking a number of different initiatives to fight back.
 
Richard Pond offers lessons from the European experience for Canadian public sector workers.

Straight Goods News:
You mentioned the Troika.  This Troika has imposed severe conditions upon all the national economies.  What kind of tactics are working for European unions in the face of that kind of a tilted world?

Richard Pond:
It remains to be seen what's going to work in the end.  The problem is that you have repeatedly come up with the argument that austerity isn't working.  And what you see is that the Troika, up until now,having a kind of solid opposition to that, saying, "We need austerity, we need public spending cuts to give confidence to the private sector." That seems to be a bizarre formulation as up until now we've seen that the Troika act as a solid block. 

What now?  I suppose that the chink in their armour is the fact that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is beginning to say quite clearly that maybe austerity not only doesn't work, but actually — as we've been saying for several years now — prevents you from building a strong recovery for the European economy.

Straight Goods News:
What are some of the non-traditional methods that some of the European Unions are using in the face of the attacks on public sector workers?

Richard Pond:
It really varies very much across Europe.  I suppose that one of the things that some unions are conscious of is trying to tap in to those kinds of informal movements that have grown up in opposition to what's going on.  You do see attempts by unions to work with some of those movements. 

One good example is in the UK where — what the unions are also trying to do is provide an alternative message: People say, "We've got massive debts, what are we going to do about it?" So the unions say, "Well, actually, if you look at tax avoidance and evasion that's costing the European economy a trillion euros a year.  So let's do something about that."  That connects with a number of different campaigns across Europe. 

In the UK, for example, we've had some very spectacular direct action by a group called UK Uncut which is precisely tapping into that idea that there's a massive amount of tax revenue there that's not being collected or that the rich and the corporations are avoiding paying.  So, there are movements like that across Europe.  The challenge for unions is to see to what extent they can look at those kinds of alternatives and to what extent they can work with them.

Straight Goods News:
Tell me more about UK Uncut.  Who started that?

Richard Pond:
To be honest, I'm not sure.  It came from outside the union movement.  I think it's mainly probably a student-based organization.  It's mainly about raising the issue through direct action.  There are a number of big companies in the UK where it's apparent that they pay tiny amounts of tax.  Essentially, the direct action takes the form of a group of protesters going into High Street stores. 

We have a High Street store in the UK called Boots, which is a chemist, a pharmacist, big department stores across the UK.  UK Uncut goes in and essentially leaflets and generally make themselves known to everybody and let people know about what Boots is doing.  Its ultimate company registration is in Switzerland — therefore it's avoiding a massive amount of tax. 

Those kinds of direct action initiatives are a bit of a challenge to trade unions sometimes as well.  It's a new way of operating and it's something that the trade unions have maybe got to look at to see to what extent they can support it and can tap into.

Straight Goods News:
Somehow you've got to move public opinion on this question of revenues vs expenses.  The austerity people are saying, "We have to cut expenses" and labour has to be saying, "We need more revenue." Correct?

Richard Pond:
Yes, absolutely!  I think that the big challenge is that the right seems to have the common sense argument.  They say,"We've got massive debts therefore we have to stop spending, we have to reduce the debt." 

It's like Margaret Thatcher use to say in the 80s: "It's almost like running your household.  What you do is you have to cut back", which is, in terms of a national and international economy, complete nonsense because what you do has a direct impact on the economy.  So if you draw money out by not spending, by saving, then you are going to weaken the recovery.  It's about getting the balance right and seeing how best we can organize and fund our public services in order to be part of the economic recovery.

Straight Goods News:
Any other lessons you would offer to Canadian trade unionists looking at this massive assault that's coming at them?

Richard Pond:
Yes, it's probably worth looking at what the unions have managed to do in the UK.  I believe, at the moment, there is this big controversy about political spending by unions in Canada. 

One of the attempts by the Thatcher government there to open up unions to public scrutiny completely backfired.  The unions were forced to have votes to ask their members whether they should spend on political campaigning, and the votes went massively in favour of political campaigns.  The members were voting by 80 – 90 percent to say their unions should spend their money in this way.  So I think that there are maybe some specific lessons there.  I think, otherwise, it's worth looking at all the smaller victories across Europe as well. 

What we found looking at some trends in the UK, Germany, France, is that there is a bit of a trend now away from privatization, for example, towards re-municipalization.  And increasing evidence — and I think this is an important thing — increasing evidence that strongly counters the assumption that the private sector can do things more effectively and efficiently than the public sector. 

One of the key things that we're trying to do in EPSU, European level, is to gather that evidence across Europe and provide more and more information to our members about the fact that actually there is this trend away from privatization.  It's by no means a question that the tide is turning but if we can get more and more of this information out, we can begin to turn the tide, maybe.

© Copyright 2013 Ish Theilheimer, All rights Reserved. Written For: StraightGoods.ca