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French trade unionists and European works council members Paul Montagut (left, Metro) and Serge Corfa (Carrefour) listened with interest, but also with some healthy scepticism, when Christelle Maes of EuroCommerce told about the increasing employer interest for socially responsible business.

The commerce participants at a recent Uni-Europa Conference in Brussels on European works councils concluded that organising is still a major challenge. In many commerce multinationals, the unionisation rate is still so low that calling for a European works council to be established makes little sense. Particularly the non-food sector is still poorly organised whereas unions in many countries are making good progress in the leading supermarket and hypermarket companies.

Alex Rüdig of Uni-Europa Commerce told participants about the successful organising projects, which target multinational retailers and wholesalers in Central and Eastern Europe.

During the last years, the dialogue between Uni-Europa Commerce and many leading European traders has developed in a positive direction. European Works Councils, which are normally dominated by union members, can play an important role in this work. There is, however, a clear need to improve the quality of the meetings. A lack of proper preparation on the workers' side has often meant that there has been only little genuine dialogue and consultation at the meetings. This will now be changed.

The full day working group session also discussed much of the practical work in the works councils. Language is still a problem in most companies, but nevertheless, there is a need for the works council members to be in touch with each other much more frequently. A European works council cannot mean only an annual meeting with a long silence in between, someone said.