Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

202 Norbert Cyrus
demands of our existing members for safe jobs and reliable regulations have to
be realised. Otherwise there will be no approval for joint action.
(Adams and Wiesehügel 1995: 123)
The two high ranked IG officials – one later became president of IG BAU and a
member of the federal Parliament – underline that the beliefs and perceptions
of members are the starting point for activities. The preference for German
over foreign nationality is a rational aspect of organisational logic. ‘Strategic
decisions depends primarily on both the interests and the available power resources of an
organisation’ (Erne 2001). The trade union officials are aware of this.
In the rest of the chapter, I will examine the efforts at persuading the national
members over the process of European integration. How did trade unions frame and
interpret the interference and impact of European integration for their members?
And did the repertoire of cognitive patterns change over the course of time? What
is the impact and interaction of the political and cultural opportunity structure? The
best source from which to gain insights into the trade union’s efforts at persuasion
is an examination of communications via the monthly membership magazine.
Inclusive and exclusive interpretations
In order to unearth the interpretations IG BAU offered to its members, in its role
as cultural commentator, I studied eight volumes of the monthly membership
magazine, Foundation Stone (Der Grundstein) from 1990 until 1997. As shown in the
previous section, this period witnessed deep transformations: national borders
became porous in the aftermath of the collapse of the socialist states; the traditional
distinction between domestic and foreign workers dissolved in the process of
European integration; and the informalisation of industrial relations undermined
the basis of neo-corporatist arrangements.
At the beginning of the 1990s, IG BAU still obviously believed in the possibility
of continuing with the neo-corporatist framework of closed national labour markets.
In expectation of an economic boom in the construction sector, with positive effects
on employment and wages, IG BAU entered the tariff negotiations in 1991 with
the demand for a 10.2 per cent wage increase (Foundation Stone 91/2: 3). However,
events in the 1990s went, as already indicated, in the opposite direction. To explain
the situation and to indicate a solution IG BAU – a constituent part of the weakened
but still existing neo-corporatist arrangements – relied on the main argument
that the problems were caused by disruptive forces from outside. In the 1990s, IG
BAU named several categories of outside ‘interlopers’ who were blamed for the
deplorable state of affairs.
East German workers as interlopers
The first category of outside interlopers were highlighted in 1989–90. IG BAU
noticed that in consequence of the collapse of the German Democratic Republic,
construction workers from East Germany were threatening the standards of work