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Negotiation of restructuring processes at European level and
the role of European Works Councils: the case of the …
European Works Council
IPL/HBS Conference, Turin, March 7th, 2005 – Georg Leutert
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1) Background- Formation of FEWC in 1996
- 16 members, 3 external experts
- Five countries:
- Intense co-operation and exchange with Volvo EWC
- Frequent meetings
- Strong co-ordination/leadership by Select Committee
- Day to day business handled by own secretariat
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1) Background- First negotiations in 1999 (Visteon)
- Formally recognized as negotiating body in 2000
- A total of eight agreements negotiated, thereof two re-negotiated agreements and one in progress
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2) Major agreements- Visteon (2000)
- Background: Outsourcing of Ford’s own supplier plants
- FEWC response: Resolution dated 10 May 1999
- Members decided to delegate conduct of negotiations to FEWC
- Declaration of mutual solidarity Agreement ensured continuity of the plants (sourcing
commitments) Agreement constituted basis for subsequent national agreements
on issues of co-determination in the context of Visteon Still today, the FEWC is keeper to the agreement (as well towards
Visteon)
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2) Major agreements- GFT (2000)
- Background: Integration of Ford’s European manual transmission business into 50/50 joint venture
- FEWC response All employees have remained Ford employees Agreement on forward looking investments Agreements protects plants and ensures their future
development
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2) Major agreements- European Framework Agreement/Code of
Conduct (2003)- Agreement on social rights and social responsibility
signed by Company and Unions- Well accepted by employees throughout Europe- Seems to be one of the few effective instruments we
have in order to conciliate global competition and the European Social model
- Initiative in progress to extend to global scale
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2) Major agreements- IOS (2004)
- Background: Restructuring of Ford’s PD processes by integration into cross-brand PD-operations
- FEWC response- Exclusion of job losses- Re-investment of savings into new products- Employees who require redeployment, due to IOS, will
be provided with the appropriate retraining to ensure their employability
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3) Strategic approach/recommendations
- We have to chase for early information and act quickly
- We have to build strong employee networks for on-going information exchange
- We have to present ourselves as (strong) unity
- We should be in the position to calculate costs on a total cost basis
- We (in the West) should try to be better, not cheaper
- It is crucial to insert clauses for re-negotiation in each and every agreement we sign
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3) Strategic approach/recommendations
- Short-term business policy is fatal but sometimes increases management’s readiness for concessions
- We have to act as “co-managers”, argue the way management does
- If we act too late or if we act against major economic principals we risk to end up with a pyrrhic victory
- We should strictly separate between purely national topics and European topics but always be ready for actions of trans-national solidarity
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4) Conclusions- EWC can be a platform for strong unity/solidarity
among employee representatives- By the way: Has there been more concrete and lived
international solidarity between workers in the past 60 years in Western Europe than some recent cases of EWC show us?
- In MNC’s we just can’t win on our own; we can tackle the problem of competition between production sites if we are decided to go for a fair distribution of the existing production volume and see the benefit of joint action
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4) Conclusions- We risk to die ‘in solidarity’ if our strategy is not
based on a solid business model; current financial and economic performance of automotive manufacturers (except of Toyota) is that tough that we can easily pull the rug out from under our own feet