Europeanisation, National Identities and Migration ... - europeanization

German trade unions and Polish migrant workers 213
It is illuminating that observers from both sides of the border, in order to describe
the most striking aspect of the recent debate of the Polish–German relationship, refer
to the subject of free movement of workers within the accession process. This
indicates, first, that the political interest representation of the IG BAU was efficient
and became an aspect of the discourse which was impossible to ignore. Second,
the statements illustrate that the lobbying of IG BAU is perceived to appeal to
stereotypes. The earlier account of the persuasion efforts disseminated through
the membership magazine supports this estimation: IG BAU proceeded from
traditional stereotypical images which were once created in the context of the labour
immigration from Poland to Germany. Portrayals of the situation use allusions to
the traditional images of Polish labour immigrants: as in the case a hundred years
ago, the work of Polish labour immigrants is characterised as being of lower quality
and causing unemployment.
For this attitude, IG BAU, as the key actor in representing the trade union
positions in the treatment of immigrant labour, became the target of harsh criticism.
Immigrant organisations complained that IG BAU shows no interest in supporting
Polish contract workers asking for assistance (Meister 1995). Responding to an open
letter by a local trade union official in Berlin, a DGB-working group on, Trade
Union activists Against Racism and Fascism, accused IG BAU of racism:
workers, most of all from East Europe, are offended to be described as a ‘cancer
abscess’ and ‘parasites’. Those workers with the worst conditions of work, pay
and social protection are excluded [from protection]. The demand that the
authorities intensify their actions against the employed workers is official policy
of IG BAU. With this, in the first place, people are affected who are coerced to
sell their labour cheaply because of the miserable economic performance or
political situation. These people are made illegal by the German aliens law. We
demand that IG BAU represents the interests of all those employed in
construction work. We demand that IG BAU . . . [does] not rely on bad racist
propaganda.
(Trade Unionists Against Racism and Fascism,
Open letter 12 April 1996; see tageszeitung (taz), 16 April 1996)
IG BAU repudiated such a criticism. The trade union would neither put forth,
nor propagate nor tolerate racism and xenophobia. IG BAU justified its own
position with reference to a number of facts. As already shown, for about two
decades several independent, but overlapping trends led to a transformation of the
constitution of the labour market. The previous account indicates, however, that
the influx of Polish and East European workers is one among several factors
contributing to the crisis in construction industry. The increasing use of temporary
employment of migrant workers is the result rather than the cause of the
transformation (Faist et al. 1999: 227).
According to its self-presentation, IG BAU tried hard to prevent xenophobic
reaction among German construction workers. The claim was made that since 1992
‘government and Parliament had to quickly initiate activities in order to meet the