Evaluation of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in the Context of Globalization
Ali İhsan Balcı, Mehmet GülerThe process of globalization has and has given countries change and transformation in economic, political and social fields.The social policies and labor relations institutions of the countries are also affected by this transformation of globalization. Due to the new production and management techniques that emerged with the globalization process, a negative environment emerged for the trade unions, one of the most important actors in industrial relations. As a matter of fact, it is seen that the multinational companies whose effectiveness is increasing in the process are now going to transnational organization rather than being organized locally.
The collective voice mechanism, which is the most important power of the unions, and the aspirations to organize on a global scale have existed since the years of the industrial revolution. However, it is possible to say that today, unions have fulfilled these demands only by being organized under the umbrella of a higher organization on a global level. Global top trade union organizations focus not only on the problems between workers and employers in working life, but also on the problems of other disadvantaged groups in social life.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the role of the ETUC in the European Union. During the globalization process, ETUC has undergone various changes and transformations. The aim of the ETUC is to ensure the coordination of workers ‘movements at European level and to organize these workers’ movements under one roof. While maintaining this aim, it continues to be a regional power. In this study, the changes of the ETUC in the globalization process will be discussed and the organization strategy of ETUC will be tried to be determined.
Avrupa İşçi Sendikaları Konfederasyonunun (ETUC) Küreselleşme Bağlamında Değerlendirilmesi
Ali İhsan Balcı, Mehmet GülerKüreselleşme süreci ülkelere ekonomik, siyasal ve sosyal alanlarda değişim ve dönüşüm yaşatmış ve yaşatmaktadır. Ülkelerin sosyal politikaları ve çalışma ilişkileri kurumları da küreselleşmenin yaşatmış olduğu bu dönüşümden fazlasıyla etkilenmektedir. Küreselleşme süreci ile birlikte ortaya çıkan yeni üretim ve yönetim teknikleri sebebiyle endüstri ilişkilerinin en önemli aktörlerinden biri olan sendikalar için olumsuz bir ortam oluşmuştur. Nitekim süreçte etkinliği artan çok uluslu şirketlerin artık yerel olarak örgütlenmektense uluslar üstü örgütlenmeye gittikleri görülmektedir.
Sendikaların en önemli gücü olan toplu ses mekanizması ve küresel boyutta örgütlenme istekleri sanayi devriminin yaşandığı yıllardan beri mevcuttur. Fakat günümüzde sendikaların bu isteklerini sadece küresel düzeyde bir üst örgüt çatısı altında örgütlenmekle sınırlı olarak gerçekleştirdiklerini söylemek mümkündür. Küresel üst sendikal örgütler sadece çalışma hayatındaki işçi ve işveren arasındaki sorunlarla ilgilenmenin yanı sıra toplumsal hayattaki diğer dezavantajlı grupların sorunlarına da odaklanmaktadır.
Bu çalışmanın temel amacı ETUC’un küreselleşme sürecindeki dönüşümünü incelemektir. Küreselleşme sürecinde ETUC’da çeşitli değişim ve dönüşümler geçirmiştir. ETUC’un amacı Avrupa düzeyindeki işçi hareketlerinin koordine olmasını sağlamak ve bu işçi hareketlerini tek bir çatı altında örgütlemektir. Bu amacını sürdürürken bölgesel bir güç olma etkinliğini de sürdürmektedir. Bu çalışmada ETUC’un küreselleşme sürecinde geçirmiş olduğu değişimler aktarılarak, günümüzde ETUC’un örgütlenme stratejisi irdelenecektir.
The process of globalization increases its impact on societies. While this situation is criticized by some academics that economies, culturally and politically, countries and institutions are moving away from their essence, it is considered by some academics as a valuable process that makes it necessary to become a global village which is an important integration required by today’s conditions. Globalization is a process that increases the competition among countries in line with the capitalist tendency in the world, directs societies to consumption, offers great advantages for developed countries, but provides an unfair environment under competition conditions for developing and underdeveloped countries. In other words, the process of globalization is a concept used to express a dynamic process that presents all positive and negative aspects for countries.
The economic policies of the countries and institutions started to change in a more liberal direction due to the dominance of the liberal view that advocated the necessity of economic opening to the world, especially after the 1980s. This has undoubtedly affected individuals and institutions involved in labor relations in the country. For example, in the periods when globalization and openness were not so effective, in the periods when Keynesian economic policies were applied, unions in the countries were in a much stronger and collective unity in forming a single whole, a single voice; indirectly, the unions have a tendency to decline. Multinational companies are expressed as the locomotive force of the globalization process. From another perspective, this can be read as employers wanting to dominate labor markets on a global scale. Therefore, the struggle against the globally organized employers has brought a very challenging process for the local unions. Because, employers who are organized on a global scale have been able to intervene in working conditions even in the most remote parts of the world through multinational companies and in other words, they can easily reach the places where there are some better but cheaper labor conditions in the industrial revolution. Through multinational corporations, global production chains were established in the Far East, Africa and South America, where cheap labor was established, and they entered the non-union labor markets and quickly separated from the labor markets of developing countries in Europe and in particular with protective laws. Thus, the economies of these countries have experienced turbulence and have tried to attract foreign capital to their countries especially with the flexible regulations.
they apply in their laws. The interventions of multinational corporations in various ways and in an unfair order in various countries have brought forward the idea of making arrangements that can be valid for the workers in terms of working conditions, occupational health and safety. However, in order to defend this view, it is essential that the unions organized at the local level unite and organize at the global and regional level. The idea of unification of labor organizations is actually based on the First International in the 1860s before the 1980s, which is considered the beginning of the globalization process. It was argued in the internationalities that the global working class should be united and a global labor union should be established. Therefore, it is important to establish a standard order against labor and to organize it on a global level. Thus, it has become even more important that globalization should be organized on a global scale in the trade unions against the global power given to the employer. The existence of a globally organized union will ensure that the labor side is strong in regional and global terms. While the whole world has undergone a significant transformation with the globalization process, a union initiative has been experienced in Europe as well. The face of this initiative as an institution is the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation). The single market idea of employers in Europe has had a major impact on working conditions and social policies. At this point, the European ETUC has become an important social partner among these social policy-makers and contributed greatly to the European Social Dialogue. Therefore, the fact that it has an important place in the European social dialogue as an important actor has continued to work at a higher level than the local unions.
ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) is the leading force of global trade unionism. ITUC and ETUC are very similar in terms of organization and intellectual thinking, and moreover, they can be expressed as reflections of each other in global and regional dimensions. Therefore, the fact that ETUC and ITUC have a very important place in terms of the idea of global unionism has played an important role in the formation of research questions in this study. As a matter of fact, it was started with the desire to examine the place and importance of ETUC in the European Union. The ETUC is no doubt a global organization large enough to respond to globalization. However, it is a very important organization in terms of the regional top representation. Recognizing the lack of studies on ETUC and ITUC in the Turkish literature is also important in terms of partially filling the gap in this area and guiding future studies.
