Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

208 Norbert Cyrus
enacted that enabled the social regulation of the mobility of workers in transnational
labour markets. The statutory minimum standards covered foreign workers from
East Europe as well as from EU member states and German workers. But when the
negotiations on EU enlargement became more concrete, an exclusionist position
against East European workers returned, in spite of the existence of national
minimum standards. In a press release, the IG BAU president lumped together the
threat of illegal employment with Eastern enlargement. He warned against ‘Mafia
on construction sites’, noted a growing influence of Mafia organisations from Italy,
Russia, Albania and Romania and turned to the subject of Eastern enlargement:
With regard to the Eastern enlargement of the European Union, Wiesehügel
demanded an interim period of minimum of ten years, before an accession
candidate receive full membership. A quicker introduction of free movement
for services and workers would have a disastrous impact on the German
political economy, but also on the political economies of the acceding countries,
said the trade union chairman. In Poland, for example, the majority of peasants
and a significant share of industrial jobs would fall victim to a brutal structural
change. Also, the German labour market would not cope with the immediate
introduction of free movement of workers, proceeded Wiesehügel. The results
would be an even more merciless and predatory competition, more bankruptcy
than today, higher unemployment and ‘starvation wages within one of the
wealthiest countries of the world’.
(IG BAU press release, 11 December 1999)
In the trade union argumentation, the reference to the situation in Poland used to
be important: it was stated that the transformation in the Polish agriculture in the
course of European integration would lead to an increased influx of legal and illegal
workers from Poland. Contrary to the expert views of most scientific observers
making predictions about Eastern enlargement (DIW 1997 and 2000; Hönekopp
and Werner 2000) IG BAU operated from the perception that the immediate
grant of free movement to workers would result in an uncontrollable influx of
Polish workers. In April 2001 the membership magazine published an article entitled:
‘Hot issue: Eastern Enlargement. How Europe scares’. The reader is informed about
the situation in East Germany: decreasing wages and increasing unemployment
characterise the social reality. With an allusion to German re-unification, it is said
that the last enlargement the people experienced is still hard to digest. A trade union
official is quoted: ‘The people are afraid of the Eastern Enlargement and you cannot
gloss over this fact. To relieve people from this fear is the most important task of
policy. This is yet not realised’ (Foundation Stone 2001/4: 10).
To relieve people from fear, the trade unions demanded a restriction on the free
moment from candidate countries for an interim time limit of ten years. IG BAU,
as the sectoral trade union responsible for the subject of Eastern enlargement,
launched intensive activities in order to guarantee the postponement of the free
movement of workers from East European candidate states. The lobbying activities
concentrated on the national level. Since the 1998 election, the chairman of the IG