1. Collective bargaining and wages: Challenges for trade unions in the crisis and beyond ACTRAV Symposium on Collective Bargaining Geneva, 13 October 2009
Steffen Lehndorff Institut Arbeit und Qualifikation / University of Duisburg-Essen

2. Before the crisis: inequality on the rise

4. * Wages per person employed as % of GDP, 1960-2006; Source: ECFIN (2008: 97)
** Net TU density (BE, NL, FR, DE, IT, UK, IE, DK); Source: ICTWSS database, European Commission (2009)

5. Where has all the money gone? – The US case
Source: Foster/Magdoff

6. Where has all the money gone? – The German case

7. 2010/2011: Upcoming conflicts
“In particular, appropriate wage-setting, sufficient labour market flexibility and effective incentives to work are required. … We will always do whatever is necessary to deliver price stability, whatever the situation.”
“As regards fiscal policies, the need for ambitious and realistic fiscal exit and consolidation strategies is becoming increasingly pressing. … Countries’ structural measures should focus on the expenditure side.”
Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB, 8 October 2009

8. Work sharing in the crisis : Tackling the wage problem
Example: The German short-time working scheme
net pay hrs not worked
KuG*
67 %
total
pay
net
pay
net
pay
employer
labour agency
* KuG = Short-time work allowance
Source: German Ministry of Labour

9. Public social expenditure as % of GNP
Source: OECD Social Expenditure Database

10. Labour input into social services* and female employment (FTE)
* Education, health and other social services (NACE ) - Source: ELFS; own calculation IAQ

11. Bargaining on wages: The wider agenda
Insisting on the demand-side impact of wages: Towards a wage-led recovery
Urging for state support: minimum wages, short-time working etc.
Preventing „consolidation“ at the expense of social benefits …
… and beyond: Public social services as growth and employment engine