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FINAL
DOCUMENT TAORMINA
3 – 5 APRIL
The 2nd European Conference of Commerce Trades Unions of the Mediterranean held in Taormina (Sicily) on 3-4-5 April 2003 took a closer look at the issues already discussed during the 1st Conference held in Athens in March 2002. On the basis of a research carried out and presented in the form of an initial draft, the Conference analysed the ways multinationals operating in the sector have developed in the economies of different countries. The aforesaid multinationals are producing different effects in each country of the European Union, especially in terms of transforming the commercial system. Organised distribution, at both wholesale and retail level, in fact plays an important role in economic and industrial development. This applies both in Europe and in the world at large. European Union legislation and national and European bargaining can and must attain the objective of making the multinationals conform to the economic and social model established for European Union countries in Lisbon. As things stand now, a political and social model has yet to be accomplished for Europe. As it is, the European Union needs to be strengthened and harmonised. This objective can only be achieved if we manage to establish - in the various regions of Europe - policies aimed at developing and modernising national states whilst preventing social dumping. The emergence of fresh challenges inherent in changes in society, employment and labour makes it essential to further co-ordinate economic and social policy and consolidate social dialogue. This positive yet minimal instrument, combined with solid trades union relations, should indeed be at the very heart of the future model for European development as a driving force for economic and social reform. The Taormina Conference attributes a fundamental role to social dialogue in constructing this European model of society and growth. As a result of this analysis an important role is attributed to the European Uni-Europe Federation, because it is only by actively involving individual countries in the decision-making process that we can defeat the ambitions of the multinationals which hope to keep the trades unions divided, so that they can impose their economic and social model, which is based purely on making profits and limiting rights. This is particularly important in view of the now imminent enlargement of the European Union. This process of improvement has the full support of the trades unions, but it calls for co-ordination and political guidance because the candidate countries are relatively weak when it comes to co-ordination and social dialogue. This weakness could make the future enlarged Union harder to govern. If social dialogue is to fully meet the challenge and become a true tool of modernisation, it will have to extend its agenda. It will have to operate at a more sophisticated level and diversify its means of intervention. It will have to cover every aspect of bargaining, starting with such issues as: · Working conditions; · Union intervention rights; · Equal opportunities; · Occupational training; · Information rights; and · Regulating work hours, whilst eventually also defining more complex and comprehensive rules regulating wages and bargaining. Furthermore, the social dialogue will also need to focus on discussions that will pave the way towards collective agreements on all these issues. These problems were the main points of debate at the Taormina Conference. There is no doubt that the target of collective European contracts has yet to be achieved. But in a framework of European integration and world-wide globalisation the trades union will have to negotiate a minimal threshold for European rights if they are to address the problem of increasingly precarious working conditions brought about by such processes as internationalisation and mergers between multinationals. We must of course consider national bargaining models, but as Uni-Europe we have to take up the challenge and go beyond collaboration and co-ordination, extending the scope of action of our policies. The aim of the Taormina Conference, which we first established in Athens, is to create new channels for exchanging information between Trades Union Organisations operating in the sector. The growing interest that has emerged encourages us to pursue initiatives involving countries of the Mediterranean Basin, with the co-ordination of Uni-Europe. This approach will feature among the points to be debated at the next European commerce conference in Stockholm, as it may provide the key to finding a positive and purposeful solution to a stalemate situation that has emerged in the framework of union efforts to develop the economic model in Europe. Co-ordination, collaboration and discussion on sector policies are pivotal elements in union efforts to improve the working conditions of people employed in the sector. This aspect will have to be further enhanced as we build a social Europe. Last but not least, but as an obvious follow-on to our previous affirmations, the Trades Union Organisations of Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Cyprus, Turkey and Greece repudiate war, as indeed all forms of terrorism. They condemn current developments in Iraq, where hundreds of people are losing their lives, above all children and civilians. The Trades Union Organisations ask for an immediate end to the conflict, which must not extend to countries bordering with Iraq, and they plan to take active steps to cope with the humanitarian crisis. Finally, the Trades Union organisations declare that the process of reconstruction must take place in the framework of the fundamental role of the UNO and the European Union, which they hope will soon re-establish its internal political unity on this issue. The Trades Union Organisations attending the Conference have decided to continue working on this initiative next year and have arranged to meet again in France.
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