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Reaching out to all migrant workers
Published: 7 March 2008
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UNI-Europa is extending its Migrant Workers’ Network following a three-day seminar in Helsingor, Denmark that called for an amnesty for Europe’s undocumented workers to give them legal status. Unions are being urged to reach out to migrant workers and to build bridges to their communities to win new members and to tackle the problems they face at work. Unions have already started the process of helping some of Europe’s most vulnerable workers - with moves including a union passport for workers coming from other countries, language and organising initiatives and dedicated union project teams. The aim is to provide union protection, to end pay exploitation and to involve Europe’s future new citizens in unions and their new countries. A recent FNV Bondgenoten national campaign on behalf of cleaners in the Netherlands - mainly immigrants - won a 10 euro an hour pay rate. The campaign included community support and put pressure on clients as well as employers. “Migrant workers are far more prevalent in precarious work, not just temporary work but short term contracts and bogus self employment,” said Jean-Paul Le Duaron, of the European Trade Union Institute, which helped organise the seminar with UNI-Europa with the support of the EU and held at the LO Skolen. The work of unions is set against - on the one hand - a background of right wing demonisation of immigrants (often aided by sections of the media) and - on the other hand - a growing recognition of the contribution immigrants make to economic growth and to reinvigorating Europe’s ageing workforce. Swedish affiliate Fastighetsantälldas Förbund recently surveyed migrant workers - documented and undocumented - in a study of the “sans papiers”, reported Sten-Erik Johansson. 43% of the union’s membership are either migrants or have one parent born abroad - the majority in the cleaning sector. The union will present a motion to the May conference of union centre LO pressing for a regularisation of workers without documents in Sweden. “We want an amnesty so that these workers can get papers, healthcare, social care and education for their children like everybody else. We want all the unions in LO to organise undocumented migrant workers.” UK union UNISON has made a similar call and there was a broad consensus at the seminar in favour of an amnesty. Legal insecurities leave workers vulnerable to exploitation at work and in housing, said several delegates. Participants made the point that migrant workers do not displace domestic workers but instead take vacant jobs - and create new jobs. “When you create activity you create growth - and growth creates jobs,” said Eddy Stam, FNV Netherlands. They have been blamed for putting strains on public services - yet it is migrant workers that keep many of these services going. “Instead of scapegoating migrant workers, we need to properly fund our public services,” said Greg Thomson of the UK’s biggest public service union UNISON. “We have to defend everyone, even those without a contract or without papers,” said Gaetan Stas of CSC Belgium. “We cannot recruit migrant workers with the union methods of 50 years ago,” said Eddy Stam. “Unions will become museums if we don’t change and if we do not adapt to our audience.” For centuries Europe was the main exporter of migrants -70 million people left the continent between 1750 and 1960. Now Europe has net inward migration and the biggest movement of people since the end of the Second World War - powered by a widening global wealth gap and a North/South divide. This has raised new issues of diversity for some countries. Europe is increasingly in competition with the United States, Canada and Australia to attract highly qualified workers - including IT - to meet skills shortages. Altogether Europe has three million job vacancies - though more of these could be filled domestically if there was more re-skilling and flexibility in recruitment that brought in more women and older workers. “We need a migration policy that is up to the challenges of today and not the defensive migration policies of the past,” EC Coordinator on Migration Fotakis Constantinos told the seminar. The extension of the Europe Union eastward has also sharply boosted the number of EU mobile workers moving for work within the Single Market. In the UK (which imposed no work restrictions on new member countries) about a million workers have arrived from Eastern European EU member states since 2004. Inward migration will slow the projected shrinking of Europe’s ageing labour force - 30% of the labour force could be over the age of 60 by 2050. But migration will not totally compensate for the ageing factor, even if annual net migration stays at 1.9 million net new workers (the average for the last three years). The EU is working on a number of directives - to standardise permit procedures and to produce a Blue Card system for the highly qualified that will be tied to a firm job offer, proven qualifications and a salary at least three times the minimum wage. Blue Card entrants would be able to bring in their families and their arrival is expected to create more unskilled jobs in Europe. The EU also plans to look at the issues of seasonal workers, paid trainees and intra-corporate transfers. One key element in EU policy will be to work with countries in Africa and Asia to combat brain drains and funds to help returning immigrants create work. “It’s not our job to say who comes into the country,” said Vic Van Kerrebroek, of LBC-NVK Belgium “But it is the task of unions to protect rights and to organise all workers - including those without papers.” “With strong unions it really is possible to organise migrants and get them integrated,” said Annick Roy, from CFDT France, reporting on a workshop session. “We have to gain the trust of migrant workers.” “There is a gender perspective on this issue,” said Berivan Ongörur, of Unionen, Sweden who explained that women migrant workers often face additional problems including sexual harassment. She also called for moves to ensure migrants can use all their skills - Sweden has the highest qualified taxi drivers in the world. Sylvester Anthony reported on the project involving Denmark’s 3F and unions in Central and Eastern Europe to provide a passport that will transfer union rights should those workers come to Denmark. “We need them to work here but we want them to work on Danish conditions,” he said. Among the suggestions and initiatives to emerge from the seminar were: * Dedicated union departments or units to map and coordinate the task of organising migrant workers. * A passport to help ensure union support for workers arriving from other countries. * Three months trial membership with access to training and education. * Mentorship programmes and career coaching. * Training of reps in anti-discrimination work. * Building anti-discrimination into collective bargaining. * Cooperation between unions. * A proactive, multilingual approach to migrant workers. * Using workplace elections as an opportunity to explain the work of unions in many languages. * Extra shop stewards to represent migrant workers. * Training including languages, but flexible to cope with family commitments. * Unions to cooperate to provide help desks for migrant workers (as already happens in Malaysia). * Getting migrant workers active in the union and on to union decision-making bodies. “All European countries are affected by migratory flows,” said Nicola Konstantinou, of UNI-Europa. “There are migrant workers in all our countries - documented and undocumented. With current demographic trends, migratory flows are going to continue.” “It’s the workplace where integration starts,” said Jean-Michel Miller from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Standards. “Trade unions have a responsibility.” |
