Factory closures and relocations means that trade unions in different countries are in direct competition with each other. Is solidarity between workers possible?

Reporter: Workers united?

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15267474/m003-0094-en.srt

Does the race for profitability leave room  for solidarity in Europe?

What is the attitude of unions  when workers are made to compete?

29 September 2010. 100,000 workers  demonstrate in Brussels

against the austerity measures  imposed by European governments.

About 50 union organisations  from 30 countries were present.

That day European trade unionism  showed a united front.

European trade unionism coordinates  the different national trade unions,

in the aim of creating the conditions  for solidarity and cohesion,

and to fight against competition  between employees in Europe,

in relation to fiscal or social competition,  and relocations and restructuring.

Behind this committed declaration  the reality can be very different -

competition between employees  and also between unions in Europe.

DHL is one example.  This express courier service 

illustrates the faltering solidarity  between different European unions.

In 2004, DHL, a company  which is owned by Deutsche Post,

Since it was impossible  to extend its activity in Belgium,

DHL decided to relocate part of its  activity to Leipzig in the east of Germany.

As a result, over 2,500 jobs to date  have been lost in Belgium.

Peter Luypaert was present at the  demonstration in Brussels in September.

He condemns the attitude  of the German union VER-DI.

He says that VER-DI broke  inter-union solidarity.

The union leaders from VER-DI  had already started negotiations

with the state of Saxony,  with the board of Deutsche Post,

and with the EU Commission  for subsidies,

while we were still fighting to keep it here.

Hendrik Vermeersch,  a member of a large Belgian union,

confirms his comments. He's followed  the DHL case from the start.

They didn't come out publicly  in favour of the move,

but, on the other hand,  as the possibility grew,

and the creation, or transferring,  of jobs to Leipzig.

For German workers,  this move to Leipzig was a godsend.

Unemployment in this region of  the former East Germany is close to 14%.

DHL also got a bargain, since salaries  are about 20-30% lower than in Belgium.

This leader of the German union VER-DI  in Leipzig defends his region's workers.

When a new location is opened here,  people are happy.

So it's very difficult to tell your colleagues:

"Stop working, because the Belgians  want to keep their location."

Unlike Peter Luypaert,  the Belgian DHL worker,

Andreas Wiedemann says that  VER-DI, the German union,

had no influence in negotiations  at the time of the move.

In the end we don't get asked,  "Do we do it or not?"

In the end the company  takes the decision on its own.

When thousands of jobs are at stake, the  unions' national preference often wins.

It's hard for European unions to impose  social solidarity over 27 Member States.

A European minimum wage  or common taxation in the EU

are lines of thought that could perhaps  lead to real solidarity without borders.