CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Cross-border social dialogue and agreements
These developments show the strength of a union strategy coordinated
at European level, but also the fragility of agreements given the lack
of a legal status for transnational collective bargaining at company level
in Europe. Nevertheless, the GM Europe case is an example of the collective
action of an EWC with over 10 years of experience that has been
successful in building relations of trust and good cooperation both
among its members and with union organizations at national and
transnational levels. This enabled EWC members, together with union
organizations at national and transnational levels (a) to put forward an
innovative and important strategy to go beyond national divisions, which
previously allowed one site to be pitted against another; and (b) to elaborate
a coordinated European-level response to management restructuring
strategies — sharing the burden. The outcome was the signing of several
agreements at European level aimed at preventing plant closures and
forced redundancies. The experience served as a model for the EMF’s
European company policy on restructuring and framework agreements.
The EMF has been increasingly involved in developing a union
response to MNE restructuring, including transnational collective bargaining.
The EMF has played an important role in negotiating agreements
to establish EWCs in its sector, and continues to do so. An EMF
coordinator, generally a union officer from the national organization of
the MNE headquarters, is placed in each EWC. The 2004 GM Europe
agreement further inspired the EMF to adopt a 2005 document on
“socially responsible restructuring” (EMF, 2005) implemented through
an early warning system resting on the EMF coordinators. In the case of
even an informal restructuring, the EMF coordinator, with the EMF Secretariat,
will set up a European trade union coordination group consisting
of EWC representatives and one trade union officer for each national
union involved. This group will try to negotiate an EFA, including job
security prior to any national negotiations (EMF, 2006, p.15). The EMF
has also elaborated internal rules concerning mandates for transnational
collective bargaining and the adoption and signing of EFAs. The EMF
experience in turn has inspired other European industry federations.
The development of transnational collective bargaining at company
level is ongoing in Europe. The Social Agenda 2005-2010 of the European
Commission includes the preparation of an “optional framework
agreement” for transnational collective bargaining at company level. 11 An
11
European Commission (2005). See also the chapters by Sobczak, Bé and Drouin (this volume).
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