From 8 to 11 February 2024, the International Seminar "Mobilisation and participation of workers in promoting decent work" was held in Santarém, Portugal, organised by CFTL (Centro de Formação e Tempos Livres) and BASE – Unitarian Front of Workers (BASE-FUT) with the support of the European Centre for Workers' Questions (EZA) and funded by the European Union. The seminar was attended by members of workers' organisations from Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania.
The recognition that workers' participation and the redistribution of the wealth generated by labour are fundamental conditions for the dignity of work and is a central demand of the workers' movement and a theme of the Social teaching of the Catholic Church since its original development in the 19th century - later recognised by the International Labour Organisation. Throughout the seminar, the discussion centred on three of the main forms that this participation has taken over the last 150 years: collective bargaining; co-management; and cooperativism.
Labour and consumer cooperatives, which used to be important in some European countries such as Italy, France or the United Kingdom, are now almost residual in terms of number and volume of employment. This decline is sometimes seen as an economic inevitability and is attributed to the lack of effectiveness of democratic decision-making processes and the unattractiveness of cooperatives in terms of investment, even by the workers themselves. These factors supposedly make the cooperative hopelessly unable to compete in the market.
However, scientific research into cooperatives has contradicted this thesis, stating that there are no significant differences between cooperatives and companies in terms of productivity and longevity. Instead, the eclipse of the cooperative movement can be explained by institutional, political and cultural factors. These include the latent tendency of cooperatives to move away from democratic operating principles - with the concentration of power in their managers, the admission of workers without conferring membership status, the lack of interest of the main political players in cooperativism as a way of responding to social and economic problems and the prevalence of socialisation and learning models that foster obedience and conformity and discourage criticism and participation.
However, the figure of the cooperative continues to have great potential in various areas, including rural development, guaranteeing territorial cohesion or combating long-term unemployment. It is therefore essential to develop policies and practices that promote the cooperative movement and counteract the factors that lead to its decline.
Experiences of co-management are also relatively limited, confined to a few central and northern European countries such as Germany, Austria and Denmark. However, the underlying principles still make perfect sense. This model is based on recognising that diverse and equally legitimate interests coexist in the company - not only those of capital, but also those of the workers and the communities in which they operate. For the company to become a true human community, it is essential to involve workers in the definition of strategy, organization of work, definition working conditions and distribution of financial gains.
Despite the interest that cooperativism and co-management maintain, it is undeniable that collective bargaining became by far the most important form of participation throughout the 20th century - and remains so in the 21st. In this period, collective bargaining has proved to be the cornerstone of decent work and the strongest guarantee of well-being and better working conditions for workers - not only in terms of wages, but also working time, health and safety, training and lifelong learning, and safeguarding family and private life.
The right of workers to form associations to defend their interests is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the right to collective bargaining is guaranteed by a convention of the International Labour Organisation. We sometimes forget that these rights were not given to us but were won by the labour movement and by the determination, effort and sacrifice of generations of trade unionists. Even more dangerously, we forget how these rights are constantly under threat.
The organisation of workers into trade unions and collective bargaining are the most effective devices developed to date to counter the structural imbalance of power between workers and capital that is inherent in the employment relationship. Trying to dismantle these devices in order to intensify the exploitation of labour is therefore a temptation that capital cannot resist.
That's why this seminar focused on the challenges of organising and mobilising workers, factors to promote the quality of collective bargaining and sensitivity to the crucial place they occupy in building a democratic and prosperous society.
Workers' organisations face several difficult challenges. Trade union action depends on three key factors: solidarity among workers; a deep and close knowledge of the reality and problems of labour workers on the part of trade unions and trade unionists; and demonstrating the effectiveness of forms of negotiation and struggle. These three factors have been constantly jeopardised.
Solidarity between workers not only suffers from the atomisation and selfishness that prevails in our societies, but it is also undermined by ways of organising work and evaluation systems that encourage unbridled competition between workers within companies and also, sometimes, by unclear decision-making processes within trade unions. Knowledge of the reality of work and workers' problems suffers from restrictions on union action in the workplace and the dissolution of the very idea of the workplace with the adoption of remote working. And the achievement of results from trade union action is jeopardised by the weaknesses of monitoring and the lack of consequences for employers for non-compliance with rules. It is essential to counteract these trends by developing creative strategies for maintaining contact with workers, guaranteeing the democratic nature and transparency of union decisions, fighting for legislative changes, demanding compliance with the law and adjusting the forms of struggle to the objective conditions in which workers find themselves and publicising the results of union action.
It is also essential to guarantee and increase the quality of collective bargaining. This means increasing the preparation of trade unionists in negotiation processes. This involves better training of those who sit at the table on the side of the workers and greater diversity of negotiators, ensuring adequate representation of women, young people and minorities. But it also implies that workers have access to information about the company that allows them to build properly informed negotiating solutions. And it is also crucial that the outcome of the negotiation is respected, with guarantees that the resulting agreements are properly implemented.
Finally, it is essential to forge and maintain solidarity between workers and the population - which is itself a labour force. This means realising the interests of the population, explaining the reasons for trade union action in the public arena and developing forms of struggle that have the maximum effect on the employer and the minimum damage on workers and the population in general.