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Scottish Trades Union Congress |
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2009 Composite calls for campaigning on ECJ decisions restricting TU rights |
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2008 General Council Statement warns of the dangers of the EU Lisbon Treaty |
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2007 STUC debates Services Directive and EU Constitution |
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“In February 2008, the General Council organised a conference on the European Union Reform Treaty (Lisbon Treaty) which included a range of expert speakers and included consideration of the ETUC view of the new Lisbon Treaty; discussed the merits of a UK referendum on the Treaty's ratification and the implications of the European Court of Justice Viking and Laval rulings. The General Council recognises the widespread support amongst its affiliates for a referendum on the European Treaty as reflected in the motion passed at TUC Congress 2007. The General Council therefore regrets the fact that the House of Commons chose not to hold a referendum and agrees that, if the opportunity for a further Commons vote were to arise it will campaign and lobby in line with this view. Public services The General Council supports the view of the TUC that the EU Reform Treaty is a 'Trojan Horse for unfettered privatisation' Congress believes that adoption of the EU Reform Treaty will do nothing to increase the protection of public services given the transfer of public health away from national governments to the EU Council of Ministers and the continuing bias demonstrated by the EU Commission, EU Treaties and Directives against publicly run services. Workers Rights The General Council is also concerned at decisions by the European Court of Justice in the Vaxholm and Viking cases that it is illegal, in light of the EU's statutory duty, to defend free competition, for trade unions to undertake industrial action to defend existing collective bargaining agreements, when firms from another country seek to employ workers on inferior conditions. The strength of union concerns about Europe-wide attacks on public services and workers' rights, including pension rights, is demonstrated by trade union led demonstrations in Greece, Belgium, France and Hungary. The General Council will undertake a campaign to publicise, and act on, the concerns it has on the EU Reform Treaty, and on the wider direction of the EU, including on: • worker's rights, including rights to collective bargaining, industrial action and pension rights; • public services, including health, water and education; and • social rights, including the right to work and to truly affordable housing." The General Council notes that there are a number of significant future steps in the ratification of the European Treaty including the Irish referendum planned for June 2008. It also recognises that the parliamentary process at Westminster has not been completed with a House of Lords vote still pending. It is however increasingly unlikely that a referendum will take place in the UK and the General Council therefore believes that alongside the continuing effort to expose the negative aspects of the Treaty, other campaigning activities and initiatives are necessary. A Social Europe and the UK Despite its drift towards deregulation and market-oriented policies, the General Council notes that significant protections exist for many European workers only some of which have been extended to the UK. The General Council believes that the UK Government has failed in its duty to adequately protect Britain's workers through negotiating a partial opt-out on the Working Time Directive; through its failure to sign the European Human Rights Treaty which would extend trade union freedom in Britain; and through its role in blocking European legislation to protect Agency Workers. The General Council believes that the fact that the UK is tied to European Single Market agreements, whilst not fully extending to UK workers rights enjoyed by other European countries through EU law, represents the worst of both worlds for trade union members and wider society. There is therefore no contradiction between highlighting the dangers of the EU Treaty whilst campaigning for the UK Government to play a full part in defending a `Social Europe'. The General Council will therefore continue to campaign and make representations to the UK Government in line- with this view as well as supporting the ongoing efforts of the TUC and ETUC to ensure that the UK Government supports extending legal protection for Europe's workers. This statement puts the General Council’s response to motions submitted Clydebank Trades Council and Unite TGWU. |
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The 2007 STUC meeting in Glasgow at the Royal Concert Hall on 16-18 April debated two motions on the Services Directive, one on the EU Constitution and one of EU policy on Cuba. EU Constitution The motion on the EU Constitution warned of the dangers to democratic rights arising from any attempt to revive the 2004 EU Constitution and demanded that a referendum be held if any constitutional document was once more proposed by the EU Commission or Council of Ministers. The motion was moved by Tom Morrison from Clydebank Trades Union Council, seconded by Kilmarnock and Loudon Trades Council and was passed unanimously with General Council support. Moving the motion Tom Morrison noted that the EU summit in March 2006 had set a deadline of June 2007 for firm proposals on a renewed constitution with the objective of having the revived constitution in place within twelve months. Mr Morrison stressed that the EU constitution was rejected by workers in France and the Netherlands in 2005 because it fundamentally weakened the ability of their own parliaments to exercise control over economic and social matters. The 2004 document gave the EU full legal superiority over member states and, unlike any other constitution, prescribed the type of economic system specifically as being based on the free market. It also radically increased the areas of legislation that could not be vetoed by individual member states and gave powers to increase these further through the Council of Ministers and without parliamentary approval. He emphasised that the battle against the Constitution was not over by a long way and that on that very day the British prime minister had held a press conference along with his Dutch counterpart arguing that an abbreviated Constitutional document would not require a referendum because it would simply summarise existing treaties. EU Services Directive Two motions were debated on the EU Services Directive. One from the Musicians Union called for a campaign of education to alert trade unionists to the danger posed by the Services Directive due to come into force in 2009. The other motion was proposed by Clydebank Trades Union Council and seconded by the Rail Maritime and Transport union RMT. This called for the STUC to support the campaign of opposition to the Directive by trade unions elsewhere in Europe and also in the UK parliament where the legislation has yet to be debated by the European Scrutiny Committee and enacted into law. Moving the first motion Eddie McGuire, Chair of the Musicians Union and also Chair of SCAEF stressed that although the ‘country of origin’ clause had been removed from the Directive after lobbying by the trade union movement in February 2006, the legal framework surrounding the Directive would make it possible for any company established in another member state to operate outwith the collective bargaining structure established in any other member state while that lack of any obligation to establish a registered office would make it extremely difficult to secure the evidence needed to prove direct violations of laws safeguarding employment conditions or health and safety. Mr McGuire called on the STUC to take a pro-active role in educating members on the dangers posed and highlighted the work of the Scottish Campaign against Euro-Federalism, Trade Unionists against the EU Constitution and the conference to be held on 16 June. The motion was passed unanimously with General Council support. The second motion called for a continued campaign of opposition. Moving Tommy Morrison for Clydebank TUC warned that the Directive represented a frontal attack on the public sector. He argued that combined with recent European Court of Justice rulings, the Proposed Health Directive and the proposed document on Labour Law, the Services Directive would open all sectors to a race to the bottom in which the power of the trade union movement in the public sector, its main remaining bastion in Britain, would be fatally undermined. Seconding Gordon Martin of the RMT denounced the directive as the product of right-wing anti-trade union policy makers in the EU Commission and the Round Table of European industrialists. It represented a charter for pay cutting and had to be opposed. The General Council opposed arguing that Trade Union pressure had secured a significant concessions, that the Directive had been approved by the Council of Ministers and that the best course of action was to support the petition being promoted by the ETUC which was calling for social services to be exempt from further privatisation and competitive tendering. Despite General Council opposition, the motion was only narrowly defeated on a show of hands. Cuba The motion from Kilmarnock and Loudon Trades Union Council called on the STUC to lobby MEPs and MPs to oppose any attempt, involving the British government or the EU Parliament, to support those member states currently campaigning to align the EU with the US blockade. Moving the motion after a speech to Congress by the representative of the Cuban Trade Union movement, Manual Montego, Arthur West outlined the change of EU policies towards Cuba since 2003 and an increasing tendency to fall in with US government campaigns of interference in the internal affairs of Cuba. In June 2007 the EU was due to revise its Position Paper on Cuba. There was strong pressure being applied by US financed groups, along with the governments of the Czech Republic and Poland, to bring EU policy fully into line with the full force of the US economic blockade. Congress unanimously gave its support to the motion. . |
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Composite P - Trade Union Rights on trade union rights resolved: “That this Congress reiterates its call for repeal of the anti trade union laws and support for the Trade Union Freedom Bill. ... “Congress congratulates those MPs, who rebelled against the Government in November 2008 and voted in favour of the amendment to the Employment Bill, tabled by John McDonnell MP,which would have simplified balloting procedures in accordance with a key clause of the Trade Union Freedom Bill. “Congress also congratulates the United Campaign to Repeal the Anti Trade Union laws for its lobbying in support of the Trade Union Freedom Bill. “Congress notes with great concern the four recent European Court of Justice decisions in the Viking, Laval, Ruffert and Luxembourg cases which, taken together, have gravely restricted the right of workers to take industrial action in defence of existing collective bargaining agreements, as well as the rights of member states and of local authorities to require contractors to honour minimum conditions. “In this respect, Congress notes the resolution passed at the 2008 TUC that unelected judges of the EU, using the ‘free movement’ provisions have disembowelled the concept of social Europe and undermined the ability of unions to protect workers, and that the Lisbon Treaty would exacerbate these attacks by handing greater powers to the ECJ to interpret disputes concerning the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Congress further notes that the 2008 TUC resolved to campaign against the ECJ judgments, including calling for a European wide day of action. “Congress also notes that the ETUC is supporting a 'Social Progress Protocol' in future Treaties, which would unconditionally defend collective bargaining rights and specifically the right of workers to withdraw their labour collectively as they should decide. “Congress resolves to: • Facilitate meetings of affiliates to promote the campaign; and • continue to lobby MPs, MSPs and MEPs “ |