Metal unions side with bosses to battle EU climate package
LEIGH PHILLIPS
02.12.2008 @ 17:54 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Worried they are to lose thousands of jobs in the steel sector, a mass protest of metalworkers from across Europe descended on Brussels on Tuesday (2 December) afternoon to demonstrate against the EU's moves to limit climate change.
Lining up with steel industry to make the same demands as their employers, the trade unionists - the bulk from steel processing and industry-heavy Germany - demanded that the sector be protected from the danger of companies decamping to countries where the rules on carbon emissions are less strict.
Steelworkers on the march in Brussels (Photo: EUobserver)
"We are for, not against a clean environment, but we are also for a good work environment," said Erich Foglar, the head of the Austrian steelworkers' union, the OGB, as some 11,000 demonstrators, according to organisers from the European Metalworkers' Federation, snaked their way through the heart of Brussels' European quarter.
"The EU steel industry must not be at a disadvantage when competing against steel makers from other parts of the world."
"We want to stop climate change, but to do so, companies need to be able to plan and invest in new, environmental technologies. They cannot do that if they have to pay for emissions permits."
"We are absolutely not just backing up the bosses - that's why we're not demonstrating with them, but with steelworkers across Europe."
The unions say that by significantly increasing the production costs of European steel, the EU's emissions trading system (ETS) set to be relaunched in 2013 with stricter criteria than at present, poses a threat to its competitiveness with countries not covered by legislation on CO2, and result in the relocation of production and job losses - a process referred to as "carbon leakage."
To protect their industry, the workers want the sector identified as being at high risk of carbon leakage and have all carbon emissions permits within the ETS for free for those companies that have already invested in cleaner production methods.
They also want public funds for research and development of green technologies in the steel industry committed to supporting controversial carbon capture technology, which hopes to be able to scrub energy and industrial emissions of their carbon and store it underground or under the seabed.
No carbon leakage
The World Wildlife Fund for Nature was disappointed that the metal unions were taking the same line as the steel industry bosses.
"The steel trade unions tend to follow their employers, taking whatever line their industry tells them," said Sanjeev Kumar, WWF Europe's ETS expert, who says the steel sector is not beset by any carbon leakage concerns.
"The European Commission's data shows that the industry is not exposed to any significant international competition," he pointed out.
The green campaigner is backed up by data from the International Energy Agency, which in early November, reported that there had as yet been no sign that the ETS had caused industry to relocate outside Europe.
The sector operates under an "oligarchy market situation," Mr Kumar said. "If you are able to work together in a cartel to fix prices, that means that you cannot be exposed to foreign competition, because the only way you can do this is if you all but control the market."
He said it was sad to see the unions take such a position. "The real question members need to be asking their leaders, is what benefits are there in supporting these companies of dubious character?"
"If they are so concerned about jobs, why are they not asking for employee-based benchmarks [for subsidies] rather than industry-based ones? That way at least companies that hire or have more employees are promoted. I'm frankly surprised they are not demanding this."
Economic concerns paramount
Mr Kumar said he suspects the protest is not about the ETS at all, as the changes do not come into effect for another five years, but rather about the current economic crisis.
IG Metall, the large German metalworkers' union, saw some 550,000 of its members participate in small strikes across the south of the country at the beginning of the month. But as the economic crisis rapidly hit Germany, the union leadership quickly dropped its eight percent wage increase demand - the first such call for a sizeable increase in 16 years - and accepted a deal offering less than the current inflation rate.
According to the union, net profits in the metal sector for the past two years have been the highest in 40 years, despite a decline in wages of three percent since 2004, resulting initially in a growing militancy amongst union members.
However, the leadership now sees a defence of the sector as overruling all other considerations.
Left-wing environmental activists meanwhile argue that the unions have set up a false dichotomy and that a massive public investment in the shift to a low-carbon economy will necessarily create quality green jobs and solve the economic crisis at the same time.
