Description

In its report on collective bargaining in 1997-98 the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) warns against the risk of social, wage and tax dumping in the wake of the third phase of European Monetary Union scheduled to begin on 1 January 1999.

The warning issued by the research institute of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)  stems from awareness of the fact that the countries of the euro area will no longer be in a position to use exchange rate adjustments as a means of enhancing competitiveness.

Accordingly, in this report the ETUI advocates stronger coordination of collective bargaining at European level, referring, as a positive example of such coordination, to the agreement concluded, in September last, by representatives of German, Belgian, Luxembourg and Dutch trade unions at Doorn in The Netherlands and to the collective bargaining proposals issued by the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW) and the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF).

As in the previous year, in 1997 average pay growth in Europe was again only 1%, whereas productivity rose by 2.3% over the same period. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, as the ETUI does not fail to point out, remained at almost the same level as in previous years: 10.7% in the EU as a whole and 12% in the euro area. The results of the

Luxembourg “Jobs Summit” held in November 1997 left much to be desired for, in the view of the ETUI , they offered no adequate response to the employment crisis.  The fight against unemployment requires, according to the ETUI, a European employment pact designed, among other things, to coordinate the various national measures to fight unemployment.

Summary reports are also available in

and German

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European Trade Union Institute

for Research, Education and Health and Safety (ETUI-REHS)