It was opened by the EMF General Secretary Peter Scherrer, who gave a brief description of the role and policy areas of the EMF and presented the EMF’s new press and communications strategy aimed at achieving a higher visibility both towards its members and towards the outside world. The EMF’s press and communication work has been given a new impetus – hence the creation of a PR Unit - and this event is the first to be organized as part of our new policy and indeed the first of a series of press events on a specific theme. Peter Scherrer invited the participants to look at the revamped EMF website: www.emf-fem.org and referred to the re-launch of the new EMF Newsletter, as well as plans to make a short film on the metalworking industry of today and its workforce for presentation at the EMF Congress in June 2007.

Bart Samyn, EMF Deputy General Secretary, gave an overview of the work of the EMF in the field of collective bargaining coordination. He was pleased to announce the launch of an EMF book entitled “Milestones on the long and hard road towards an EMF co-ordinated collective bargaining strategy” describing the process by which the EMF arrived at its current strong position regarding European co-ordination and is seen as a forerunner in this respect The book marked the 15^th Anniversary of the EMF collective bargaining coordination strategy and puts the development of this strategy in its historical context. It contains all the policy documents, decisions and guidelines pertaining to collective bargaining up to the 5th EMF Collective Bargaining Conference (Rome October 2005). It would be updated regularly through the inclusion of new documents on our website and a supplement published in 2009 (next EMF collective bargaining conference).

Bart Samyn also presented the Report of the proceedings of the 5 ^th EMF Collective Bargaining Conference, at which the EMF had launched the EMF First Common Demand: The individual right to training guaranteed by collective agreements. He explained that this was a new step forward in our co-ordination strategy and gave a strong signal to employers regarding the pursuit of our European coordination on collective bargaining issues. Training had been chosen as this issue is already high on our affiliates’ agendas and is one which also meets the employers’ interests in further developing skills and lifelong learning within the metal sector. Affiliates were given a list of choices regarding the means of implementation of the Common Demand over the 4 years of the EMF Campaign. This is a first in collective bargaining history in that it is the first time that the same demand is to be put forward in all collective bargaining rounds in all European countries at the same time. The EMF affiliates were providing Roadmaps setting out their own timeframes and means of implementation of the Common Demand as well as how to ensure high visibility for this issue and how to motivate membership to take up training. The results of recent negotiations showed that The Common Demand was already making progress in Europe, as can be seen from the results of recent negotiations and the favourable reaction from metal sector employers’ associations, e.g. CEEMET, which had put this issue on its own agenda.   Dr. Jochen Gollbach, EMF Advisor who is also responsible for the EMF’s EUCOB@ network, presented the book written for his doctorate under the title “Europäisierung der Gewerkschaften - Praktische Ansätze im Spannungsverhältnis nationaler und europäischer Strukturen und Traditionen". He described how he had used the example of the collective bargaining coordination network between Belgium, the Netherlands and North-Rhine-Westphalia to compare national and European trade union structures and traditions. We currently have multi-level collective bargaining in Europe (sectoral, regional, national, company and European) and he had attempted to analyse the effects they had on one another. He had also tried to clarify how the EMF intended its European Wage Coordination Rule (EWCR) to apply, its strengths and weaknesses and how it was interpreted by our affiliates. His conclusion was that two pre-conditions were required to ensure good collective bargaining coordination at European level: good structures for information and consultation between all the collective bargaining actors and a commitment to political goals going beyond a mere “lowest common denominator” in order to arrive at common demands and solutions.

A question and answer session followed in which Bart Samyn confirmed that the EWCR had not been used openly as a tool for negotiation in collective bargaining rounds but as a post-negotiation tool for analysis of the results of agreements. Jochen Gollbach’s book, although highly critical, was a good analysis whose conclusions - the need to bring all actors together for information and consultation - had been useful to the EMF in ensuring that it developed a more pro-active approach to collective bargaining coordination and this had also been used to ensure good coordination in restructuring cases (e.g. GM, or more recently PSA).

Regarding the Common Demand, he explained that an overview of roadmaps from some 30 countries had been prepared by the EMF and was to be presented at its Executive Committee in June. It would subsequently be published on our website. The roadmaps were part of our campaign to increase the visibility of the Common Demand towards trade union members and towards the outside world. Questioned about the link or overlap between the Common Demand issue and social dialogue, Bart Samyn stated that the issues discussed in social dialogues involving the EMF were not simply related to the Common Demand, but to a whole range of industrial policy issues affecting the metal industry (e.g. steel sector social dialogue). Looking to the Commission thinking on voluntary agreements through social dialogue, this was one way of reaching European agreements but not the only way to achieve European results.

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PRESS 8/2006

For further information, please contact:

Editor, Peter Scherrer, EMF General Secretary: Tel: + 32 2 227 1010