Facklig förnyelse och social dialog i post-kommunistiska samhällen: de baltiska staterna

Abstract

Det här projektet fortsätter ett huvudtema ur Charles Woolfsons European Commission Marie Curie Chair Excellence Award (2004-2007) i de baltiska länderna ? social dialog och facklig förnyelse i de post-kommunistiska länderna. De baltiska länderna är bland de mest öppna nya marknadsekonomierna och deras förvandling från sovjetrepubliker till nya EU-medlemmar avslöjar många av problemen med den europeiska integrationen, inte minst utvecklingen av anställdas rätt till representation på arbetsplatsen. Projektet undersöker på ett jämförande sätt anledningarna till de mycket låga nivåerna av fackligt medlemskap och de tämligen svaga strukturerna för social dialog som existerar både nationellt och på arbetsplatser i de baltiska länderna. En viktig slutsats hittills är att svårigheterna för facklig förnyelse har lika mycket att göra med den ?bedrägliga korporatism? som följts sedan självständigheten från Sovjetunionen som med det negativa arvet från den tidigare epokens regimvänliga fackföreningar.

Keywords:

Description

The Baltic states present an important case study in the possibilities for trade union renewal and the creation of effective social dialogue between the social partners of capital and labour in post-communist societies. A number of factors have combined to ensure the continuing weakness of trade unions in their role as social partners in the neo-liberal Baltic countries. First, trade unions represent a very small fraction of employees, and the decline of union membership that started with the transformation process has steadily continued. Second, low levels of membership have not permitted the servicing of a large union apparatus which could be effective either in representing employees or enabling competent social partner participation on a wide array of policy and employment issues. Third, the fragmented structure of union representation, with confederations splintered between rival organisations, particularly in Estonia and Lithuania, has further depleted the limited available organisational and financial resources. Such trade union strength as has existed is often residual in nature, mainly concentrated in the public sector, with most private sector employers remaining hostile to union representation in their workplaces (though some limited advances can be seen, such as in unionising the supermarket sector in Lithuania). In the public sector, a few sections of the workforce have also become better organised, for example, police officers. The data are clear, however, that union density in all other new EU member states exceeds that of the three Baltic countries, which have the lowest trade union membership levels in the entire EU-27
Given the relative absence of effective bipartite social dialogue, tripartite social dialogue as co-ordinated by governments has acted as the prime mover in setting national agendas. However, even though tripartite social dialogue between the key parties has been present in all three Baltic countries, it has often been no more than an empty shell with little substantive content and unable to compensate for the ongoing dialogue deficit at the level of the enterprise and workplace. The recent economic crisis in the Baltic states, an extension of the wider global economic and financial crisis, has presented trade unions with an even more difficult challenge as previous tripartite social dialogue arrangements have been largely swept aside by governments seeking to impose sever austerity packages. Renewed overtures by governments seeking to carry through austerity without organised opposition on the part of labour has presented trade unions with a dilemma as to how far to re-engage in state-sponsored social dialogue without at the same time removing their remaining credibility as representatives of working people.

Publications

E. Kallaste and C. Woolfson (2013) Negotiated responses to economic crisis in the Baltic states. Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 19, (2): 253-266.

C. Woolfson, (2011) Baltic trade union responses to the global economic and financial crisis. International Union Rights, 18, 1, 4-5.

C. Woolfson and E. Kallaste, (2011) "Illusory Corporatisms in the Baltic States", Warsaw Forum of Economic Sociology, Special issue on David Ost "illusory corporatism" 2, 1 (3), 51-72.

C. Woolfson, E. Kallaste and J. Berzins, (2011) Industrial relations and social dialogue in the Baltic states: crisis, conflict and compromise, in S. Contrepois, V. Delteil, P. Dieuaid and S. Jefferys (eds) Globalising Employment Relations: Multinational Corporations and Central and Eastern European transitions, London: Palgrave/Macmillan, pp. 179-

Other Academic Output

Conference paper: "The re-solidarisation of labour: Economic crisis, social unrest and postcommunist labour unions: The case of Baltic Lithuania", Negotiating capitalism in Central and Eastern Europe Chances and barriers to trade union revitalisation in a comparative perspective , University of Wroclaw, Polish Sociological Assoc., 4 May 2011.

Discussant for Ronaldo Munk paper "Beyond North and South: Migration, Informalization and Trade Union Revitalization" REMESO/UNESCO MOST workshop Labour rights as human rights: Migration, labour market restructuring, and the role of civil society in global governance, Linköping University, Campus Norrköping, 23 February 2011.

"Neo-corporatism re-instated? The impact of crisis on the credibility of Baltic trade unions" with Epp Kallaste and Janis Berzins, to Standing Group on International Relations, 7th Pan-European International Relations Conference: Stockholm, 9-11 September 2010. Conference abstracts listing.

Presentation on "Social dialogue in the Baltic States" to Working together for sustainable labour markets, International tripartite conference of the Baltic Sea Labour Network (BSLN) mid-term conference of trade unions and employers, Vilnius, Lithuania, 11 May 2010.

Keynote address to "From crisis to catastrophe - trade unions in a free-fall economy" European Trade Union Institute/European Federation of Building and Woodworking Trade Unions, workshop, Brussels, 4 May 2010.