Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

German trade unions and Polish migrant workers 209
BAU had become a social democratic member of the federal parliament. The
hotline between officials from the trade union and the governing party contributed
to the fact that the issue of granting free movement for the candidate states became
a top priority. Chancellor Schröder personally supported the trade unions’ claims
and spoke in favour of postponing the free movement of workers. In March 2001
the German government proposed a regulation scheme that finally became the
position of the European Commission in the accession negotiations with the
candidate states: the free movement of workers from accession states is granted as
a rule, but every old member state has the right to declare reservations and to
postpone free movement for up to seven years within its own national territory.
After three and five years the restrictions have to be reviewed and may be abolished
or prolonged up to a maximum of seven years. IG BAU declared the decision to
postpone free movement as a direct outcome of IG BAU lobbying:
The IG BAU prevailed against the Federal government: the temporary
arrangements to restrict the free movement of workers and services was
extended to seven years. The Federal government succeeded, in that the EU
Commission basically changed its negotiation position.
(Foundation Stone 2000/7–8: 9)
IG BAU presented itself as a successful political actor effectively representing its
members’ interests. But with the end of the debate on Eastern enlargement the
problems remained unsolved and the question remained how to cope with the
existing bad situation.
Illegally employed foreigners as interlopers
Currently, IG BAU is intensifying its efforts to direct attention to illegal employment
in the construction industry. The earlier account already revealed that the criticism
of irregular or illegal employment had been a constant issue, raised for each of the
mentioned categories of interlopers from outside. This thread is contemporarily
resumed and intensified. The cover story of the Foundation Stone for June 2001
published the message of ‘Construction site as scene of the crime: 300,000 illegals’.
According to this report German construction sites are characterised by a Mafialike
situation. The report opened with the description of a police action against a
criminal network of 112 enterprises which used to exploit Portuguese workers with
a tax and social contribution fraud of 17 million euro. The report continues:
According to estimations by IG BAU, 300,000 illegals work on German
construction sites. Of those about 150,000 come from East Europe, mainly
Poland. 75,000 come from Portugal and 25,000 from ex-Yugoslavia and
Turkey respectively. In February 2001 the number of statistically registered
construction workers in Germany lay under one million for the first time. The
Mafiosi pay the 300,000 illegals starvation wages of 6 euro. They do not pay
social contributions at all, no taxes, no pension contributions. ...A Western
German skilled worker therefore costs five or ten times more than an illegal.