European Labor Unions

[Jimmie Higgins]

As much as I know about the European economy, I've only ever looked at it on a nation by nation or maybe region by region basis. But with the EU now, are there (maybe it even existed before the EU) true international trade unions? What is cross-border solidarity like in Europe over the last decade. It seems like in many places some of the far-right and maybe even mainstream are capitalizing on the economic crisis by arguing for more protectionism and an "anti-Europe" perspective, but before the crisis, did unions try and organize across borders? If so was this a result of trying to deal with the EU or did it exist before, maybe the legacy of past radicalism?

In the US, "international" trade unions have generally meant having a local or two in Canada and cross-border solidarity and organizing has been the labor-Left's answer to NATO, though little ground has been made other than some attempts to work with Mexican factory workers.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Try the World Federation of Trade Unions. It organizes in some places in Europe and a number of places in the Third World.

[syndicat]

well, there is the new class front of the radical minority unions in Spain, and they're focused on the overtly pro-capitalist, pro-austerity stance of the Euro institutions. right now i think they have a march on Brussels going on. this is not the first. there was another one last year. but the various radical left unions in Spain represent maybe a fifth of union members/supporters, maybe less.

the big "institutionalized" unions -- Workers Commissions (traditionally aligned with the Communist Party) and the UGT (aligned with the governing social democratic party, PSOE) -- negotiated the present austerity pact. that is, they organized a national general strike last sept for one day but then caved in to what the PSOE was willing to do, which gave them very little. "Socialist" party government was no different than other parties in Europe in caving in to the banks and the Euro central bankers and the demands for austerity.

so the radical unions have organized a class front, putting aside their ideological differences. this includes CSC (aligned with PAME in Greece), COBAS (left spliit from Workers Commissions), SAT (former farm worker union, now general independent in Andalucia, formerly had a lot of Maoist influence), plus the three anarcho-syndicalist labor groups (CNT, CGT, SO).

they are limited in their contacts in Europe to other small unions and groups of the radical left, tho.

[Jimmie Higgins]

the big "institutionalized" unions -- Workers Commissions (traditionally aligned with the Communist Party) and the UGT (aligned with the governing social democratic party, PSOE) -- negotiated the present austerity pact. that is, they organized a national general strike last sept for one day but then caved in to what the PSOE was willing to do, which gave them very little. "Socialist" party government was no different than other parties in Europe in caving in to the banks and the Euro central bankers and the demands for austerity.This was my understanding of the mainstream unions as well as the general trend in the electoral socialist and CP parties. I think I was being a little sloppy with my terminology in the OP, I was more interested in how the EU has or has not effected the mainstream labor movement in Europe. How common is it for unions to have locals across national borders in Europe, what is solidarity like generally in the big unions - how common is labor cross-border solidarity in general, outside of just the mainstream unions?