‘All improvements in working practices have been won by working people getting together’

Now it’s time for today’s perspective guest. Check your calendar. It is May the 1st. May Day, of course, the day, also known as International Workers Day, really commemorating the struggles and achievements of the labor movement. Now, here in Paris, thousands of people are set to take part in the annual Mayday demonstrations in support of the worker. My guest today is someone who knows more about that perhaps than any other in Europe. That’s because Esther Lynch is general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, the first Irish person and just the second woman as well to hold the post. She’s with us here on set. Thank you. Good morning, Stuart. Thanks for having me. Just tell us why you think first of all today is so important. Today is all about workers friendship with each other, solidarity, unity, but celebrating what we’ve won through that unity. All of the improvements uh whether it’s uh working time, health and safety, equality, all of those have been won by working people getting together. So Mayday is a day on which we we focus on those wins. But Stuart, it’s not about defending the status quo. It’s about challenging the status quo, looking to the next things that we want to win for working people. Fair wages, quality jobs everywhere, every region, every sector. Yeah, that’s what you’re really saying today. I’ve just been um looking up the the detail. It’s about uh protecting jobs and and also urging Europe not to be bullied. That was a good sentence that I pulled out of what you’re saying. Out of our social model that we’re used to. Exactly. Europe needs to compete on being the best on quality on investment. Investment in technology. Investment in working people. That’s how we can succeed. Not by letting the Trump administration tell us you can’t have your equality agreements. There’s no going back. There’s no going back on the rules that we’re putting in place for artificial intelligence to make sure that’s fair. So all of all for all of those reasons, workers are going to come out on the streets today and we’re going to say no to austerity, no to cuts and pensions, but yes to investment, yes to quality jobs, yes to respect. Critics will say the difficulty is when you’ve got other countries, I’m thinking notably of China or Bangladesh, of places where workers have no rights, that people can produce goods a lot cheaper in those countries, meaning that jobs here in Europe, for example, are under threat. Yeah, that’s why we need a level playing field. What we need to make sure is that the trade rules uh take out of the competition wages. We need take out of competition terms and conditions of employment. We need to make sure that companies in Europe are not being not faced with unfair competition on low wages on bad conditions of employment whether it’s from abroad but also from internally internally. So what we need to make sure for example is that Europe’s public procurement rules when the state is paying for services or paying for construction projects we need to make sure that the companies who win those contracts are companies that have a collective agreement that respect workers that invest in workers that give them a prospect for the future. But it’s not a level playing field is it? I mean, when you’ve got countries that that are doing what they want and and forcing, some would argue workers to work harder and longer. That’s why we need to improve the trade rules. That’s why we’re not defending the status quo because the conditions are not fair. Companies that don’t respect workers are winning contracts. Uh workers are losing jobs because of unfair competition. So, we’re absolutely not saying that the uh trade rules in that are in place are the right rules. We’re saying that they need to be improved, that what needs to happen is to take out of competition pay and conditions of employment. Do you think there’s been a a bit of a regression around the world, I suppose, recently um towards people having less and less rights? Yes, I think that um the challenge for working people is to try and make ends meet. whether it’s to afford a home, whether it’s to have a a career that that you can rely on, whether it’s that your your pay is sufficient so that you can invest in your family and your family’s future. And part of the reason for that has been the push back against workers being able to join trade unions. That’s why it’s so important at European level that a new law was adopted to say that in Europe uh each member state must make sure that workers can join a union without fear. There can be no union busting that workers need to be able to bargain for a fair wage because profits are being made. They’re just not being fairly shared with workers. Tell us a bit about your own background. Um why you’ve moved into this area if you like. I gather in the in the 80s you worked in a factory making microchips. I did. It was so long ago. It was so long ago the microchips were the size of matchboxes. Um, but what I learned there is still relevant today. That the way working people will succeed is by getting together with your workmates, identifying what’s wrong, organizing in your union, coming up with a set of demands and sticking with each other until you win those. And it’s as was true then as it is now. But also I learned that the techniques of divide and conquer, putting one worker against another worker, older workers against younger workers, city workers against country workers or men against women, that’s not how we’re going to succeed. How we always succeed is by being united and we’re going to be there on the streets today everywhere in Europe. And where did that passion come from that actually turned you from somebody who worked in the microchips factory to actually being a union representative and coming as far as you? Yeah. So, so for me it was the realization that working people do have agency that we can create change and that the lever for the change is by being organized in our trade unions on our own. We’re we’re always at risk. We’re always at threat. It’s always better to have a group of workers with you, identifying what the issues are that you’re all struggling with, identifying and supporting each other in uh their particular struggles as well. And just by being united, by having a strong set of demands in our trade unions, we can come up with the right arguments. We can make sure that we’re in the right rooms to make those arguments, but also when we’re not listened to to use our collective power to to to bring to the table, the policy makers or the or the CEOs or the boardroom or whoever is not listening to us to use our collective strength uh to make that change. And are you confident there’s a way of doing that without it becoming a battle always with management? Yeah. So the most the most amount of time that trade unions spend is by negotiating by being identifying how the company can succeed. And it’s a it it’s a bit depressing that so many CEOs still think they know best. They know the only way and whereas whereas the fact is bringing the workers with their trade unions into discussions. What’s the investment that we need to make? How can this company succeed? How do we get successfully to the future? manage change, negotiated change. That’s the most successful change. And that’s why we want a European directive. A European directive that will say to ch to to meet the challenge of these transformations, whether it’s green or digital, to make sure that workers are involved, consulted, and have their say. And that’s the majority of the time that workers, their trade unions, their trade union officials spend. Problem is, it’s not always newsworthy. Uh so so so so for that reason you get less pictures of me sitting inside the room negotiating and a lot more of me uh being out uh uh demonstrating uh on on the streets. But both are needed to be listened to inside the room. You have to be organized um and and and willing to take to the streets to make your voice heard. And as you told me just before we came in, you’re off to those Paris demonstrations later today. Thank you very much for coming in and talking to us on the program. Esther Lynch, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation for today’s perspective guest. Thanks.

The general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation has spoken to FRANCE 24 about the importance of May Day, or International Workers’ Day. Esther Lynch is in Paris to join the demonstrations here as she says the day is about celebrating how workers’ friendship with each other – and their solidarity and unity – have won the rights that have been gained. Her organisation warns, though, that Europe should do more to protect jobs, and ensure it is not bullied out of its social model. She spoke to us in Perspective.

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