ETUI-REHS Education REHS Torino, September 2006 Jordi Vera. Tyco Int’l EWC chairman. European Works Councils and Globalization. A tool for defending workers rights with solidarity.

ETUI-REHS Education REHS Definition – European Works Council.  EWC- were born in 1994 under the European Directive 94/45/CE, after agreement between social agents (unions and employers).  The EWC is the legal employee representative for information and consultation at european level.  A legal body, where “legal” employee rep’s from different EU countries work together defending workers rights.  In principle, only for information and consultation. But in some cases there has been negotiation and agreement.  The only transnational body legally binded to have regular contact with senior central management in multionational companies.

ETUI-REHS Education REHS The current Directive must be revised and enhanced, with recognition to the unions (not mentioned currently) and clear definition about information and consultation. There must be a more vigorous attitude from the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) for getting a new revision of the Directive as soon as possible. The Employers association do not wanna talk about the revision of the Directive. The European Comission is waiting for an agreement between employers and unions, but in my personal opinion we cannot wait 10 more years for that possible agreement. It only applies to the European scope, but the EWC must influence the worldwide activities of the multinational companies, including solidarity, and monitoring the corporations in order to make them honouring laws at national level.

ETUI-REHS Education REHS  The EWC works in a complex network.  In diagrammatic form it looks like this:  Relationships:  European Works Council  Central management  Select committee  Local worker rep. bodies.  Local management

ETUI-REHS Education REHS An overview of experiences. As most EWC develop over time, practical experiences in the relationshipof EWC’s with management differ according to their ‘age’; but alsodue industrial relations differing greatly between countries, EWCs differ according to the amalgamation of industrial relations that form the background of the EWC. Companies also differ greatly, according to type of industry, prosperity, culture, etc. This means that there cannot be a single best practice. On the other hand, different experiences may prove to be an important source for learning for others.

ETUI-REHS Education REHS  Valeo (France) – Automotive components.  ABN AMRO (Netherlands) – Bank.  General Motors (US) – Automotive manufact.  Tyco (Bermuda Island-US) – Conglomerate.  Suez– (France). Holding  Unilever ( Netherlands) – Food.  Sara Lee (US) – Conglomerate.  Ford – Visteon (US) - Automotive. Some examples:

ETUI-REHS Education REHS ¨ An efficient information system. ¨ Assistance of experts. ¨ Good trade union cooperation. ¨ A very active Select Committee, an extremely important element. ¨ When dealing with restructuring, it is necessary to go beyond the specific interests of each country.. ¨ Mobilisations of the workers before entering into negotiations with management reallyhelp reach a subsequent agreement with the company. Basic conditions for ensuring this active role of the EWCs are six:

ETUI-REHS Education REHS We can point to seven areas in the system of trade union information: ¨ The central point is employment. ¨ The economic situation with respect to the market and competitors. ¨ Production. ¨ Investment. ¨ Financing.¨ Company strategic policy and economic and financial situation. ¨ Investments. ¨ Organisational structure and¨the limits of the scope of the company. In-depth knowledge of company strategy makes it possible for workers’ representatives to reactwith the greatest possible speed. Unfortunately we often see that workers’ representatives can only have an influence on the consequences of company decisions.

ETUI-REHS Education REHS Thank you.  ``Corporation. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.'‘ Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary  Tyco International ( is a manufacturing conglomerate employing more than workers in 68 countries.  The former Tyco CEO, Dennis Kozlowski, the most admired executive in 2001 (Forbes, New York Times..) was senteced in 2003 to be in jail for 25 years for looting the company 700 million dollars. In 202 his salary excluding bonuses was 148 million US dollars.