14 February, 2011
In Spain early this month, national union federations DGB of Germany and CC.OO and UGT of Spain were full social partners at the 23rd Spanish-German Summit. In common, they took the opportunity to issue a strong statement that government measures stemming from the economic crisis have benefited markets, but done nothing for social cohesion.
The national trade union centers also took issue with German Chancellor Andrea Merkel’s economic proposition heading into the summit to restrict wage growth by linking salaries to productivity and inflation. Leaders of the three federations – Michael Sommer of DGB, Ignacio Fernández Toxo of CC.OO, and Cándido Méndez of UGT – were part of a tripartite event at the summit that also included CEOs from Telefónica, Deutsche Telekom, Iberdrola, Siemens, Acciona, and other corporations.
In the statement, the federations said compliance with “the agenda established at the G20 in London for new regulation of the international financial system” must be a priority. They also gave full support to the European Trade Union Confederation’s (ETUC) rejection of European Commission proposals for financial governance, and bluntly said, “Today’s European governments aim to lay the burden of the crisis on workers and pensions.”
Citing social inequality as a trigger to the economic collapse, the statement said structural reform and fiscal consolidation concerning pensions overhaul, welfare cut-backs, and weakening of collective bargaining laws “will not lead to the recovery of the European economies. Quite the opposite. This erroneous conception is holding back a solution to the crisis and promoting social injustice.”
The statement also hit out at judgments from the European Court of Justice that wrongly regularize social and wage dumping, including the Vikking, Lava, Rüffert, and Luxembourg cases.
The DGB, CC.OO, and UGT also said it agrees with analysts who say “Europe is losing its values and its soul,” and used as case example Tunisia and the fact that European governments held back until the very end condemnation of dictator Ben Ali and support for a people’s democratic movement.