Rimini, 01/03/2006
To be checked against delivery
Secretary General, friends and comrades.
It is with pride and pleasure that I represent the ETUC at the CGIL Congress in Rimini. Special pride because the ETUC has had a big success recently in its campaign against the Bolkestein Directive. Pleasure because I am learning all the time about the special contribution that the CGIL and our other Italian affiliates - CISL and UIL - make to trade unionism in Italy, Europe and the world.
I would like to start by thanking the CGIL, CISL and UIL for the magnificent support given to the ETUC demonstration in Strasbourg, on February 14, against the Bolkestein Directive. More than 1500 Italian trade unionists made the long trek over the Alps to Strasbourg which is not an easy or cheap place to visit; and, as usual, the Italian contingent added strength and colour to our protests.
Two days later, the European Parliament, meeting in Strasbourg, decided to remove nearly all the harmful aspects of the Services Directive - they drew its teeth.
We achieved an end to the ‘country of origin' principle, that is, the principle of social dumping, which would have meant that companies registered in a low cost, weakly regulated country, could have come to Italy with the standards of that country.
Next, we achieved, though unity, the exclusion of all labour law- both contract and statutory. A great victory.
The country of origin principle was, by the way, in defiance of the wisdom of the ages as explained by St Ambrose to the young St Augustine. Augustine was on the point of leaving Milan to go to Rome and asked Ambrose whether he should observe the Milanese habit of fasting on a Saturday - a habit not I understand in common use in Milan today - St. Ambrose replied famously - “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
The Services Directive is now much more in line with St Ambrose than with Mr Bolkestein.
Next, we achieved the exclusion of health, employment agencies, the security industry, and the right for individual nations to specify what are services of general economic interest. We do not have every thing we want in this last area. We have not protected all Italian SGEIs against Mr Berlusconi's privatisations. But we are making sure that he won't be assisted by Europe.
I could go on. But, together, we have won a great victory. After years of being faced by a tidal wave of neo-liberalism, we have won a big battle and stopped a flagship policy of neo-liberalism in its tracks. We have struck a blow for Social Europe, for democracy and for the people.
We have ascertained with Bolkestein that there is a majority with a progressive heart in the European Parliament, whereas there is still a majority with a neo-liberal heart in the Commission and the Council. We need strong alliances to support our fight for Social Europe.
But the situation is changing. Recently after the elections in Spain, the new Government changed the role, policy and influence at European level. This has represented good support for us.
I hope the same will hold for Italy with the forthcoming elections.
The question now is where do we go from here?
I am aware of the views of all our Italian affiliates that the ETUC is today the expression of a union initiative that is inferior to what is needed - I quote the conference document. I have discussed this with Guglielmo and Gianpaolo and other Italian colleagues and we will debate what can be done up and at the ETUC Congress in Seville in 2007.
For the moment, I would say that the ETUC reflects Europe as it is, not always what we would like it to be. As has been called for by our Italian affiliates, we would like a fully fledged strategic and bargaining autonomy and we must continue in that direction.
But as my good colleague and your former CGIL colleague, Walter Cerfeda, can explain - Walter holds this dossier - this is much more easily said than done. Apart from the wide variation in bargaining structures across Europe and within some countries, there is the hard rock of employers' resistance. The last thing they are prepared to agree currently is an extension of collective bargaining at the European level.
So we have much work to do to occupy this ground. It is not primarly a matter of tinkering with some ETUC rules.
It is much more a mobilisation of strengths and our friends in the European Parliament, the Commission, civil society, and political parties which will get the most benefit. If we get them on our side, the employers will feel the pressure to negotiate.
That's what we did on Bolkestein. That's what we must do on developing and upholding the rights of the workers, protecting workers against social dumping and delocalisation, looking all the time for harmonisation and common European standards. Our goal is equal jobs, equal rights, equal rewards across Europe, to get away from first, second, third class workers.
That's what we must do on peace, never repeating the adventurism of Iraq outside the scope and authority of the United Nations. We stand for multilateral rules, not supernational power. We stand for the maximum use of diplomacy and love of peace. We stand against the thirst for military adventurism.
And it's clear what we must do on the future of ETUC.
Together, we must build stronger unions embracing immigrants, women, precarious and independent workers.
Together, having stopped the tide of neo-liberalism as displayed by Bolkestein, we must now work to turn that tide towards the values of social Europe - of equality, collective bargaining, public service, welfare states.
And we must do this without ignoring the need for more dynamic and creative economies capable of sustaining full employment, a sustainable environment, and a Europe which is prepared for the challenge from China, India and the other emerging super economies.
The world is changing. So must we. A great Scottish trade unionist, Mick McGahey, put it wonderfully when he said “we are a Movement, not a monument”.
So we have won a battle, not the war of course so we must fight on.
I have been heartened by many things in the Italian trade union Movement. Recently I was invited to the Unita festival (I visited the one in Terni last autumn with Emilio Gabaglio); and there I saw clearly the key role that Italian trade unions play every day and in the future of the country. I went to Palermo for a CGIL conference there and heard the courageous attacks on the mafia and their damaging influence. I know that Italian unions stand for high ethical and political standards. And, of course, if you add the three unions together, Italy has the single largest representation of any country in the ETUC.
So you are an important part of the dialogue about the future of European trade unionism.
I wish you all well - politically, industrially, socially. I thank you for your support for the ETUC. And I look forward to working with you closely in future.
Thank you.