It is a real pleasure for me to be here with you today to discuss this important topic,

Transcription

1 The Unions and TTIP Dear conference delegates, It is a real pleasure for me to be here with you today to discuss this important topic, and I want to thank the organisers for inviting me. I m also happy to be here In Luleå, my hometown where I was born and lived until 9 years ago when me and my family moved to Nacka, outside Stockholm. I am president of TCO, the Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees. I am also a member of the executive committee of the European Trade Union Confederation, our European umbrella organisation. Together we organise around x million members in Europe. Let me say a few words about the organisation that I represent TCO is a trade union confederation of 14 affiliated trade unions, together organising 1.3 million members in Sweden. These members are professional and qualified employees. They are often key public servants, the people responsible for the running of important functions in society. They are teachers, nurses, police officers and journalists. They are cultural workers such as actors and musicians. They are people working in the new economy IT consultants, software engineers, project managers. If you look at membership development in the unions affiliated to TCO, you will see that many of them have been growing over the last few years, going against the negative trend regarding union membership that we have seen in other parts of Europe. As a matter of fact, TCO is the fastest growing trade union organisation in Europe. I am of course very proud of that. An important feature of the trade union

2 landscape in Sweden is that today, more white collar workers and academicallytrained professionals are organised than blue collar workers. This is unique, and the affiliated unions of TCO are very much the driving force behind this trend, having worked hard to be relevant and on reshaping the offering that unions can make to working people. Our largest member union, called Unionen, now for example organises the self-employed, as does the Swedish Union of Journalists. And there are other atypical forms employment that are now commonplace in our labour markets. By being able to effectively protect the interests of workers also in these types of employment, white collar, or professional, workers now constitute the largest organised workforce in Sweden. This in turn enables us to yield significant influence on the political issues that matter to our members. Which is most issues in the political sphere (!), and one of those being, of course, trade politics. Which brings me to the issue at hand - TTIP. As we have heard here today, increased trade between the EU and U.S. is good for a small and export-dependent country such as Sweden. It is good for the Swedish economy and thereby also good for our members. TCO and the other two trade union confederations in Sweden, LO and Saco, are in favour of free trade. We do want to see a free trade agreement between the US and the EU. We do have some very important demands for remaining in favour of TTIP, and I will elaborate in a moment on these. But for now I want to spend a little time explaining our pro-free trade and pro-ttip stance.

3 Free trade creates jobs, but it also leads to structural change and with that comes transformations in the labour market. And this can be painful. The pro-free trade position of the Swedish trade unions is not only due to Sweden s need to export but also dependent on that those members who have lost their jobs in the wake of globalisation get a good chance to a new and hopefully better job. Unemployment insurance, active labour market policies and collectively bargained transition agreements (omställningsavtal) and possibilities for life-long learning mean that workers who have been made redundant are often able to join the labour market again. With or without TTIP we need to strengthen these institutions. But if we combine free trade and a good system for transitions, we are in a good place to reap the benefits of globalisation. In making the argument for a free trade agreement between the US and EU, it is also important to not lose sight of the situation in Europe today. Regardless of the reasons behind today s crisis in the European economy, the EU is in need of some good news, some positive impetus and some inspiring change. A failure to secure a trade agreement with the US would signal the opposite. So, we do want to see the trade negotiations between the US and the EU succeed. I also believe there is a strong geopolitical argument for TTIP. If the EU and the US can achieve a gold standard agreement that improves living and working conditions on both sides of the Atlantic it can also set the standard for other trade agreements.

4 But, having said all this, we do remain vigilant. We keep a close eye on the negotiations. Because we are not naïve. We know that TTIP is not a traditional free trade agreement. The purpose of traditional free trade agreements has been to abolish tariffs and quotas on goods. There are still tariffs left to remove between the EU and the US, but the real benefits of TTIP come from other kinds of cooperation which will reduce barriers to trade. The real benefits come from, for example, the US and the EU having increasingly similar rules and regulations. They come from having mutual recognition of product testing, so that when a given product has passed a particular test on one side of the Atlantic, it does not need to be tested again on the other side. The benefits come from the opening up of public procurement markets. In other words, the benefits of TTIP flow from the removal of non-tariff barriers to free trade. Our experience from the EU's single market has taught us that while there are real advantages in reducing these non-tariff barriers, we must be careful to ensure that we do not, at the same time, lower environmental ambitions or weaken worker and consumer rights. The details are hugely important. So yes, we do want a TTIP-agreement, but it needs to be a good agreement. It needs to be an agreement that does not have any adverse effects on existing labour rights. This has been the focus of our TTIP advocacy work. Furthermore, we must retain the possibility to increase protection of labour rights in the future. As far as TCO is concerned, there should be no ambiguity in the treaty text regarding compliance with, and enforcement of, ILO conventions and domestic labour law. Last spring I met with the EU's chief TTIP negotiator in Brussels, together with my fellow union confederation leaders from LO and Saco. We submitted proposals for how we

5 believe labour rights provisions should be formulated in TTIP and we look forward to continuing this dialogue as the negotiations progress. I would like to emphasize here how important it is that the Swedish trade union movement has been able to speak with one coherent voice during these negotiations. Our submission to the EU's chief TTIP negotiator include concrete proposals regarding: - the protection of fundamental rights; - how to safeguard national measures regarding labour protection, and - how to ensure effective compliance with, and enforcement of, ILO Conventions and domestic labour law through national industrial relations systems. One of the concerns that we have is the potential conflict between fundamental rights, including trade union rights, and investors interests. For us it is crucial that the right to form a trade union, the right to request a collective agreement, and the right to take collective action, are in no way limited by TTIP. As such, we would like to see a clause safeguarding these rights as part of an introductory chapter, as part of the general principles of the entire agreement. Another crucial issue for us is that workers rights, including trade union rights, must never be considered as trade barriers. Therefore it is equally important to safeguard the right to adopt or maintain national legislation and other measures aimed at labour protection. We would also like to see this provision included in an introductory chapter with general principles, in order not to limit its scope.

6 How the various provisions of the agreement should be enforced and where and how disputes should be settled are other important but also controversial areas of the agreement. On the issue of an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, we question the need for any such mechanism between corporations and governments in a trade agreement between states with functioning systems of the rule of law. However, if such a mechanism were to be included in the agreement, our firm opinion is that it cannot be of the traditional kind it needs to be reformed to tackle the flaws that we have seen in ISDS institutions in the past and truly comply with fundamental judicial principles. The agreement also needs to contain a strong and credible enforcement mechanism regarding workers rights. In the debate on TTIP and especially ISDS there is much focus on the rights of companies and investors rights which are quite strong. I believe it s also important to start discussing the obligations for the companies and how they should be enforced properly. We need to address this imbalance between rights and obligations. Finally, I think it is important to remember that the trade agreement negotiations are ongoing. We do not yet have an agreement to consider, but we hope we get one and sooner rather than later. I am convinced that there will be things in the agreement that we like a lot, and that there will be things in the agreement that we feel less sure about. The important thing will be to consider and take a view on the agreement as a whole.

7 I would like to compliment Commissioner Malmström on the important progress made regarding transparency since she took office. Commissioner Malmström's clear commitment to greater transparency has been demonstrated in a number of constructive measures, not least the publication of textual proposals and policy positions from the EU's side, but also the Civil Society Dialogue meetings organized in conjunction with the negotiation rounds in which TCO has taken an active part. Before I leave you, I would like to take this opportunity to play you a short video that we at TCO put together to explain the uniqueness of the Swedish labour market - The Swedish Part Model. As I explained earlier, I believe it is the strength of and the success won by the Swedish Part Model that enables us to embrace free trade and to look positively at the prospect of a trade agreement between the EU and the US. As the singer puts it: It s a win-win situation