76th year, number 1998/4

76th year, number 1998/4
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Editorial Top

The financial crisis triggered in Thailand in July 1997 has since spread over Latin America and Russia. The economic and social conditions in most of the planet, including some OECD countries, have therefore worsened much faster. In its last issue of "Employment in the World 1998", the International Labor Office forecasts a major increase of the already-considerable rates of unemployment and underemployment, as a result of the financial breakdown of Asia and other parts of the world. The ILO’s report is overwhelming: around one billion people —i.e. a third part of the world’s active population— is either unemployed or underemployed. 150 millions are indeed on the dole; 10 millions of them have lost their job in 1997 as a result of the financial breakdown in Asia. Around 60 million people between 15 and 24 are looking for a job.

During the regular meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, the WCL has raised its concerns on the negative effects of such economic situation on the workers and most destitute. It has also highlighted how negatively the structural adjustment programs have affected Asia, and how it has pushed Asian countries into some "growth traps". The WCL has warned the two financial institutions should adopt a specific macroeconomic policy favoring the poor and allowing for reducing the hurdles to the marginalized groups of society. The burden of SAP’s should in no way be borne by the population and the workers. In order to attenuate the negative effects of the economic and financial crisis, the WCL has proposed to set up a new global machinery for the global financial markets, thanks to an international commission including the OECD, the Bank for International Settlements and the UNCTAD.

The WCL equally denounced the talks for the Multilateral Agreement on Investments and the dangers such treaty would mean for the third world development and for the workers’ rights. Pursuant to such agreement, national economies would remain wide open to foreign investments and multinationals’ capital would be totally free to flow around the globe. The multilateral agreement among OECD countries would also have had direct consequences on third treaties, like the Lomé Convention between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. A really balanced agreement on investments should rather allow for the nations’ development and include, as the WCL stands for, compelling social clauses allowing for the enforcement and improvement of labor standards. Fortunately, the multilateral agreement was buried in secret, as France finally quit the talks and other countries raised their opposition.

But in the current global turmoil, signs for hope have also emerged here and there.

In the Basque country, the ETA has announced a unilateral cease-fire, a result to which the union movement has contributed. Our affiliate, Solidaridad de Trabajadores Vascos (STV), has especially been active in guiding the Basque conflict towards ways of solution and a joint democracy.

After General Pinochet’s arrest in London, the WCL deems it of utmost importance to make all the necessary efforts for rendering justice to the hundreds of trade unionists who were murdered, tortured and arbitrarily detained, as well as to the population in general who suffered the repression after the Chilean coup on September 11, 1973.

In Europe, the new prospects of widening the European Union raise more than ever the need for a social policy, as well as the need for a common foreign policy.

New expectations have arisen in South Africa, upon which we will dwell later.

In Belgium, a young Nigerian refugee tragically died during her displacement procedure. As a result, the issue of the refugees’ conditions is back in the limelight, as well as the infringement of their fundamental human rights. As the Union Confederation of Togo Workers (CSTT) has denounced it, in our times when people dignify globalization and our so-called "global village", the most destitute still suffer the narrow-minded and intolerant attitude of the opulent.

As a matter of fact, the tensions resulting from the poverty in the developing world and the wealth of the industrialized countries will undoubtedly exacerbate. The last UNDP (United Nations Program for Development) report warns that two thirds of the world population make less than 2 US dollars a day, and that 1.3 billion people have to live with less than a dollar a day.

For the WCL, the growing poverty is nothing else than the product of a development model that is single-mindedly profit oriented. Therefore, in such a negative setting, essential challenges for all the workers of the world remain the building of an international solidarity in the union movement and the search for a better coherence among all the levels of our movement.

As an international trade union, our role is to keep struggling for solutions, so that the workers and populations in the world can finally live with dignity and social justice.

Willy Thys
Secretary General

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Trade union situation in Central and Eastern Europe: Evolution Top

Bro. Bogdan Hossu, WCL’s Vice-President for Central and Eastern Europe, was invited by Labor to explain how he feels about trade unionism in this part of Europe. He granted Labor an interview during his stay in Brussels for the 2nd European section meeting (Octobre 9 and 10, 1998). During the 1st of such meeting, on March 6 and 7, the WCL liaison office in Bucharest was mandated for the specific policy toward Central and Eastern Europe.

Labor: Trade unionism in Romania, your country of origin, has been changing a lot for several years now. Could you explain the major differences between trade unionism before and during the Ceaucescu regime, and after the 1989 revolution? What progress has been made so far?

Bogdan Hossu: Unionism during the communist era, before the 1989 revolution, was far different from today’s unionism. Before that date, trade unions did not exist but in one single organization, for the Law prohibited any union organization other than the official one, which was in fact a joystick and driving belt for the communist government to control the unionized workers. There was no ideological change at all during the 80’s, nor there was any trade union but the General Confederation of Romanian Unions.

After December 1989, trade unionism spread in a multitude of ideological lines and doctrines defended by individual confederations. This is the result of the democratization of the civil society. Another point worth to highlight is that these are the union confederations better structured and fittest to adapt to the new conditions of the European social policy. But trade union confederations are not always the product of an ideology; they are sometimes created on the basis of prides specific to industrial branches or sectors. In this, a special attention is paid to improve the industrial relations, including in the collective conventions, and to the creation, position and opinion of true social partners in the National Economic and Social Council.

Labor: As WCL Vice-President for Central and Eastern Europe, how do you figure out the role of the WCL and trade unionism in general in that part of Europe, from now to the year 2000 and beyond?

Bogdan Hossu: a major role for the WCL to play is defined in its Declaration of Principles: Man, their existence and development in the labor world are some of the main concerns raised by our WCL; obviously, by respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the ideals enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the constitutive texts of the International Labor Organization (ILO). One of the most important duties, in our opinion, is to strive for a practical transposition of the ideological aspects defended in our documents.

Labor: How would you describe the impact of the economic and political situation on the workers in your countries?

Bogdan Hossu: During the first decade, some important changes have been achieved in the political and economic realms. Political breakthroughs are important whenever they allow for an economic and social improvement in society. Unfortunately, inflation has increased and sometimes soared. Families’ purchasing power has depleted. Long-lasting unemployment has appeared and unemployment itself is far higher than before. The quality of life has gone down, most of all for the least favored strata of society (like retired people or young workers); and the social services have turned more and more precarious (education, health).

Labor: We cannot outline here the harsh economic breakdown Russia is suffering, but how does it affect the countries in Central and Eastern Europe? Has the Asian crisis also a direct influence in your countries?

Bogdan Hossu: We obviously live in a globalized labor market. The economic crisis in Russia is therefore a concern for us all. Russia is a country that is in a deep crisis, after so many years of economic and political relations of cooperation with us. The crisis obviously affects us directly and even deeply. As for Asia, these countries are now in deep recession. However, Asian investments in our countries are made more in sectors like car making than other branches of the economy.

Labor: In the midst of this global economic crisis, some speak of a major breakdown similar to the crash in the 30’s. Don’t you fear the communists could rise up again, under the influence of hard-liners’ nostalgia or a disappointment of the current situation?

Bogdan Hossu: first let me stress two major differences between our society and the one of the 1930’s: back then, there was a technical and economic evolution, but with no industrial relations system whatsoever. Our society, at the turn of a millennium, is a highly technical and computerized one that tends to reduce more and more the importance of human resources and to use mainly new technologies. In such a context the former communist countries have opened to the modern world, they now access information. Obviously it is quite uneasy to accept a competing society, and the principles of a society where the supply and demand generate the economic and social machinery are also problematic to implement. However, Eastern and Central European countries tend to rule away communist concepts and consider the principles of the market economy, along with the need for a social policy.

Labor: What do you expect from the WCL right now, considering the achievements so far?

Bogdan Hossu: The WCL is an organization with an ideology and a doctrine of its own and which has showed its power in the labor world. Its will to really take workers’ interests into account has meant, in the last few years, a lot of progress for those in the economically least favored nations. We therefore feel great hope in the WCL’s role in the labor world in general; in the relations with the international financial institutions; in the talks with employers’ organizations on issues of concern for workers and their work; also within the International Labor Organization; particularly as far as child labor is concerned, or on the use of the lowest paid workforce in poor countries, and with regard to the well-known delocalizations around the world.

Labor: Do you have some figures on the unionization rates in Central and Eastern Europe? Don’t you think there is a disinterest for joining trade unionism, just like it has occurred in Western Europe?

Bogdan Hossu: Actually the unionization rates are rather uniform. Here are some examples: Poland: 45-50%; Czech Republic: 65%; Slovakia: 50 %; Romania: 60%; Ukraine: 55%; Lithuania: 55-60%; Bulgaria: 45%; Hungary: 55-60%. I don’t think there is a disinterest. However, we must make great efforts for improving the quality and diversity of the services to our union members. This is a short-term struggle, and it is essential for better unionization rates.

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SBSI in preparation for its future Top

The WCL’s attention is more than ever centred on the trade-union situation in Indonesia. This is the reason why a technical mission of WCL visited Indonesia from 3-10 September 1998 in the aim of determining the support needed by SBSI in order to cope with the ever changing and speedy developments going on in the country that directly affect the trade union movement. With the very fragile democracy and a young trade union freedom being enjoyed by the people of Indonesia, the WCL recognizes its important role in establishing a strong, independent and free trade union organisation.

The WCL and the BATU are determined to help their young affiliate obtain a firm footing in Indonesia. This will no doubt be conducive to the expansion of the WCL in Asia.

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African trade union and social-economic activities in the globalization era Top

INTRODUCTION

The last WCL Congress, held in Bangkok (Thailand), on December 1st to 5th, 1997, focussed on the globalization and internationalization trends. The aim was to define an alternative to the "single-minded" ideology affecting the workers and most of the globe’s population. Pursuant to an orientation resolution adopted by the Congress, "both the WCL and its organizations shall aim their efforts of ideological and strategic reflection and elaboration, as well as their union and social action, towards strengthening their conviction that it is possible and necessary to build an alternative project, based on the daily and basic reality". The following is a contribution by the Union Organization of African Democratic Workers (ODSTA) to such reflection in the current setting of globalized economic system.

African trade unions and socioeconomic activities in the globalization era

So-called "modern" crises are far different from those of the Ancien Regime. Paradoxically today’s crises are no more the result of the scarcity of goods but of the difficulty for companies to sell goods profitably. Supply is often higher than demand, and unemployment is growing massively.

The second half of the 19th century was characterized by a vigorous growth of the world commercial exchanges, a trend that lasted until World War I. At the turn of our century, industrialized countries would mainly import basic products and relatively few manufactured goods. Such a situation was supposed to favor Africa, at least in theory. Nowadays most international commerce concern elaborated products, and most industrialized countries are both importers and exporters, even within a single industrial branch. What is actually the most serious plague of our times is not only the poverty of the destitute but rather the insensibility of the rich, either people or States. As a result of the economic development of the few, the environment is destroyed —non-renewable natural resources deplete); social effects are disastrous; the values hierarchy is inverted; traditional solidarity practices disappear and are not replaced. Finally, a new proletariat is emerging as more and more people are incapable to adapt to the new needs and behaviors required by the new growth.

Africa: from white elephants to structural adjustments

Africa’s depression began in the seventies, with the debt overhang resulting from the petrodollars boom. After the independence processes, national leaders plundered the public treasury of their countries, generally for unproductive expenditures (prestige or military defense). The oil crisis of the 70’s flooded the international markets with huge amounts of dollars. As such money would not be spent in the industrialized countries and in the oil producing ones, it had to be made available for international lendings. Africa was thus trapped into the debt overhang, as the money borrowed was invested in gigantic, unproductive works ("white elephants"), resulting in national macroeconomic unbalances. Unfortunately, as the books must be kept straight, Africa’s creditors (Paris Club and London Club) were compelled to intervene in order to stop the bleeding. Harsh measures were taken so to restore macroeconomic balances. In the early 80’s, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund launched a strategy of their own called "Structural Adjustment Programs" (SAP’s), aimed to reduce public spending and at the same time to buoy economic development.

Senegal was the first African country to swallow the bitter pill. Measures advocated in structural adjustment generally include massive lay-off of civil servants, elimination of subsidies and privatization of inefficient State-run enterprises. Besides, State budgets must be abated, markets should be deregulated and liberalized, and conditions should be created to draw foreign investments. As a matter of fact, such measures have caused great damage to the workers. In Morocco, for instance, a third of the 11-million working class was unemployed in 1994. The real consequences of SAP’s have been the decrease in working schedules, the delocalization of firms and the expansion of the informal sector. In the year 2001, the Gerlada mining site will be closed, thus depriving a 70,000-people city of any means of sustenance (mostly young people). Similar is the situation of the thousands of jobless professionals. In Mali, almost 6,300 workers have been laid off between 1985 and 1989. However, in 1990, 2,214 of these workers found a new job thanks to 2,786 direct employments resulting from 1,488 new projects. In Chad, more than half of the workers on the Coton Chad payroll has lost their job. In other countries, free processing zones have spread. In a January 12, 1998 radio interview, Togo’s free processing zones minister said that 39 out of 103 licensed firms were still in business, employing 6,177 workers, for a total investment of 9 billions of CFA Francs.

Besides, passing from formal employment to the informal self-sustenance is always a traumatic process. On January 18 and 19, 1998, hunger riots occurred in Zimbabwe after the corn prices rose due to the government’s lifting of subsidies. And on February 14th, 1998, two gas tanks accidentally exploded in Yaoundé, causing 200 victims.

Actually the SAP’s have only addressed the symptoms, i.e. merely economic issues like budgets, finances and markets. Such programs have not attacked the inefficiency of public administrations and the corrupt practices of African élites. As such, these programs could never improve anything and were mere packages of measures disregarding the African local specificities. African leaders also continued to plunder the resources granted under such programs, since no democratic control prevented them to do so. In many countries, the privatizing processes have been mere patronizing barters favoring political friendships and despotism.

The "informal sector" expansion as a consequence of SAP’s

After SAP’s were implemented, Africa became a sort of cemetery for public companies. The formal sector collapsed, as it was unable to respond the needs and despair of the population. The informal sector thus became the only way out for the victims of SAP’s. The "informal" sector comprehends the whole of small, individual enterprises that carry out income-generating activities. The main characteristics of the informal sector are the accessibility; the use of local resources; labor-intensive technologies; family property; small-scale operations; unregulated competition; qualifications gained out of the formal schooling system, and adaptability. There are generally four types of informal activities:

1. Survival activities: they ensure families a daily sustenance, since wages are inadequate to do so. Survival activities have mostly developed in urban areas, like in the case of small, unlicensed retails or whatever services proposed in cities: mototaxis, bike-carriers, intermediaries, bootblacks, casual sellers, domestic workers, etc. Women and children are the main performers of such activities and usually work alone. They are also victims of numerous abuses: ill-treatments, low wages, rapes, child labor, sexual exploitation, etc.

2. Small-scale commercial production: it is performed by micro-enterprises, generally tribal ones, working with a very small budget and with recovered waste or low quality raw material. Workers employed in such activities are young, low paid, socially unprotected, clandestine and low instructed. In Chad, 67,000 people work in the informal sector, among which 9,000 are craftsmen. Child labor is also present in such activities.

3. Wild capitalism: it is based on criminal, illegal activities that are a plague to society, such as smuggling, any kind of traffic, racket, etc. Our major concern for Africa is to see impoverished peasants growing drug-related crops as a result of SAP’s.

4. Tontines: these are associations of people knowing and trusting each other, with a view to perform mutual services, according to a mutually defined timetable. Such contracts are based upon equality, reciprocity, freedom, spontaneity and morale. For the members of a tontine, the main moments are the turn and the cycle. The turn is the moment at which a member receives the services for which the tontine was created. The tontine cycle is the whole of turns. There are two kinds of tontines: the mutual ones and the financial ones. The first ones are based on mutual assistance, while the latter involve savings and credits. Financial tontines are actually informal financial institutions (IFI). However, the situation of informal sector agents has worsened as the market economy has gone more and more global.

Globalization-internationalization

The IMF has defined the globalization as the rapid integration of the world economies through commerce, financial flows, technological transfers, information networks, and transcultural trends.

But the notion of globalization covers multiple facets of the global expansion of the most powerful national capitals through three well-analyzed main trends: 1) the internationalization of exchanges, credits and payments; 2) the multinationalization of companies, banks and financial institutions; and 3) the monetary, financial and cultural globalization. As a matter of fact, globalization is as old as the world itself. Tri-partite slavery was already a clear example of it. In other words, like French author Alain Minc puts it, "the globalization is", and therefore, Africa has to take this constraint into account. African economies should rather consider globalization as a model of management which responds the growing complexity of competition by creating and valorizing new capabilities at global level, with a view to maximize profits and consolidate market shares. Africa suffers from many deficits on the supply side, like technological weaknesses, the lack of methodology, inadequate competence in marketing, quality control and other entrepreneurial qualities, and deficiencies in the financial system, the material infrastructure, etc. In addition to these problems, Africa also suffers the harsh competition on the international markets, as a result of the economic liberalization. Activities like designing, research and development, innovation, marketing and communications are developing around the world and create the true added value in the cyberworld. Structurally speaking, Africa is on the losers’ side in the game of gaining market shares.

The very world "globalization" contains a deep ideological contradiction. While globalization is a source of some hopes, many illusions and deep anxieties for some, for others, it is a relief and a concern, the good and the evil; it bears potentialities and benefits, but also pains and threats. For the governments of developing countries, especially in Africa, the challenge is to define policies allowing them to benefit as much as possible from the potentialities of the globalization and to limit as much as possible the dangers of destabilization or marginalization.

However, no encouraging portent has yet calmed down the workers’ anxieties.

According to Charles Mbock, "the only liberalization possible must start from local initiatives and aim to a better local productivity. The only globalization possible is the one protecting the local initiatives in the daily struggle against poverty".

As the problems of the poor get global, the solutions must also turn global.

Mr. Michel Camdessus, IMF Director General, had probably that very idea in mind when he wrote that "in addition to the invisible hand mentioned by Adam Smith, there is a second, less invisible one (justice ensured by the State) and even a third one: the stretched-out hand of social solidarity".

New initiatives are needed for addressing the poverty issue. A new way a doing economics should be defined, based on the existing dynamics of our society. The economy is not only the single-minded search for profit through competition; it also involves the citizens, joined together in associations, and has a certain social utility. In order to be efficient, the struggle against poverty should result from multiple local initiatives rather than from an extension of public services. As Mr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, has put it: "the world has learnt to face poverty in one single manner: charity. But charity does not change poverty: it maintains it". Therefore, instead of continuing in the charity logic, which rather hinders development and does not help it, it seems to be more efficient to favor the credit logic. Credit practices have many advantages. First, they place the beneficiaries under the laws of economic activity —contrary to charity, which places them in a fictitious and privileged situation. Then, they make beneficiaries more responsible. Finally, they allow for the reinvestment of funds, thus multiplying the effects and favoring economic and social dynamics at local levels.

A modern way of struggling against the damage caused by SAP’s and by the globalization is therefore the practice of a "social economy" or "presence economy".

Social economy: the realm of socioeconomic activities

For more than a decade, a "third sector" has been emerging or re-emerging in Europe, in North America, in the Eastern European transition economies and in the Southern hemisphere —a third sector, next to the private, profit-making sector and to the public sphere.

With a view to achieve social and financial autonomy, African trade unions promote the following: cooperatives; mutual associations, including related medical and social activities; and other "economic-minded" activities (canteens, guesthouses, etc.).

Indeed the new strategy developed by African trade unions aims to perform or manage economic activities according to the following ethical principles: the aim is a service to the members and local populations, rather than profit; autonomous management; democracy in the decision-making processes; people and work are more important than capital in the incomes distribution.

The activities of the social economy are tools for services to the members and others, and not a way to make a financial profit. Potential profits are a means to perform a service and not the reason for it. The golden rule remains the autonomous management. The main weakness may be the democracy that rules an association: it is based upon the principle "one member-one vote" and not "one action-one vote"; the membership is not defined by being a shareholder or by owning a part of the capital. Finally, there is a limited remuneration from the capital since potential profits are redistributed through lower prices for members-users.

Such organizations have been developing in varied sectors corresponding to as much challenges: jobs creation, health, credit, fisheries, agriculture, etc. Here are some examples:

Placing of housekeepers (Mali and Togo); mototaxis (Togo, Benin); transport cooperatives affiliates to the Ghana Union Confederation; craftsmen unions: National Federation of Craftsmen (Mali), Guinea Federation of Craftsmen (affiliated to the General Union of Guinea Workers – UGTG), Togo craftsmen (affiliated to the Union Confederation of Togo Workers – CSTT); a furniture cooperative in Benin; a transport cooperative in Benin (called COBETRA); vegetable gardeners associations helped by the SEKRIMA in Madagascar; fishers cooperatives in Douala (affiliated to the Free Trade Unions Association of Cameroon – USLC), etc...

Women also play a significant role as owners or as leaders of micro-enterprises. Studies have shown that as women’s incomes increase, more investments are done in health, nutrition, education, and housing, resulting in a better shaped and better trained workforce. The demand in housing and other goods and services also rise accordingly.

Now trade unions have to bargain supports for the social economy in the framework of their usual collective bargaining.

CONCLUSION

Ever since SAP’s were first implemented in Africa, poverty, unemployment (affecting most of all young professionals) and underemployment have been on the rise. A growing number of poor workers cannot live on their sole employment in more and more countries. Other expanding phenomena are the inequalities in incomes and wages, the social exclusion and incidental unemployment. Women and children are the main victims. And in the absence of justice, the society cohesion and the stability of our incipient democracies are jeopardized.

Insecurity and disorganization in the black continent will probably deepen as a result of the creation of a global market by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the signing of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI).

Unions incurring in socioeconomic activities should not be considered as a fashionable movement but as a real solution for the future, even though the success of unions’ associative-entrepreneurial approach shall depend mainly on the human will. Therefore, all the actors involved (governments, opposition parties, civil society, international agents) should contribute. If trade unions really want to be actors in this sector, they must enter it only if they are the best or the least bad. The real capacity of the African union leaders is not only a question of knowledge or expertise but also a question of capacity for understanding the real world, of analysis and synthesis in order to innovate, create and accomplish something that can last and be useful to society. Hence the essential need for African trade unions to establish a decentralized and participative management of their socioeconomic initiatives.

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Eleventh CLAT congress in favour of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of Nations Top

The 11th Congress of the CLAT, which assembled in Mexico from 9 to 13 November 1998, made it its business to project the CLAT beyond the year 2000. The workers, peoples and nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are facing the enormous challenge of regional integration. That is why the CLAT has sided with important political, industrial, academic, parliamentary, religious and cultural actors, declaring themselves in favour of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of Nations.

Latin American and Caribbean Community of Nations: ultimate destination and response to globalisation

The debates during the Congress were focused on this main theme and on the document in which the CLAT explains its position and proposals with regard to the Latin American and Caribbean integration and unity. Ever since its Constitutive Congress in December 1954, the CLAT has made it its business to build the Latin American and Caribbean economic, social, cultural and political unity. It developed it Latin American and Caribbean integration theory and doctrine through congresses, seminars, councils and various rallies. This doctrine not only defines how the Latin American and Caribbean integration is conceived, but also its purpose and why its achievement is worth struggling for. The CLAT has adopted a clear-cut position in this matter; indeed, it rejects the purely economic and pan-American integration model the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is trying to establish one-sidedly in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the opinion of the CLAT, the Latin American and Caribbean Nation is the basis and foundation of integration with joint components such as language, shared history, struggle for independence and against colonialism, struggle against imperialism, religion and many others more, despite the existing national rivalries and conflicts; all these components constitute a common inheritance. The CLAT is convinced of the fact that a healthy nationalism does not disappear with the national state. On the contrary, such a state is capable of recreate a nationalism at a larger scale and with continental dimensions.

For more information on the Congress of the CLAT we refer to the following address: http://www.clat.org.

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"Free Zones": the Only sustainable alternative to fight women's POVERTY? Top

KPM

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"Ethics and new Employment forms" Top
IXth Congress of EUROFEDOP , Luxemburg, 21-23 October 1998

The 9th Congress of Eurofedop assembled in Luxemburg from 21 to 23 October 1998. Eurofedop is part of Infedop. Infedop has chosen to deal with the specific problems known by employees of the public service in their profession, through the creation of continental organisations. In view of the general objective to achieve professional solidarity at world level, the exchange of information and the interaction between different organisations at international level are indispensable. Therefore, observers of the other continental organisations have been present at the Congress of Eurofedop. Mr Adwah Balluck, president of the African regional federation Infedop, Mr Charles Denson (NAPFE), Mr Joao Domingos Dos Santos and Mr Pedro Miguel Rodriguez delegates of the American regional federation of Infedop, Mr Ernesto Verceles, president of the Asian regional federation. He stressed that Asian organisations will, in spite of today’s crisis in their region, continue their work for employees of the public service and preserve the rights which have been acquired through so much effort. In this respect the solidarity of the European colleagues was a strong encouragement, he said.

At European level Eurofedop has chosen to cooperate concretely with political leaders. This was confirmed by the speeches of the numerous important guests. The following people addressed the Congress: Mr Jozef Magerl, ambassador of Austria in Luxemburg and representative of the Austrian chairmanship of the EU; Mr José Maria Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado, president of the European Parliament; Mr Johannes de Jonge, head of service External Relations of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg; Mr Wilfried A.E. Martens, president of the EPP and Mr Bartho Pronk, EPP, Member of the European Parliament; Mr Jean-François Lebrun, deputy head of service of the DG V.

Communication 98/448 of the Commission is proof of the real influence exercised by Eurofedop on the decision-making. The invitation to participate in a conference on "Social Dialogue" and the actual participation of Eurofedop in the discussion at this conference on 27-28 April in The Hague, is once more an indication that Eurofedop is recognised as full partner.

The themes of the 9th Congress were: "Ethics in Public Service" and "New Employment Forms: a Challenge".

Prof. Dr. Annie Honghem (CU-Leuven) confirmed in her exposition that the theme of ethics in the public service is receiving more and more attention. This was attributable to two factors, she said. First, ethics could be a lever to restore the falling confidence of the citizen in the public service. Secondly, the public sector had been in recent years subject to a whole series of reforms such as privatisation, new services, autonomy, more focus on profitability and results than on procedures, so that the traditional values were challenged.

Mrs Trui Steen (female assistant CU-Leuven) spoke in her exposition about new forms of employment as challenge. Also the traditional forms of employment in the public sector had undergone thorough changes. The authorities, the employers and the workers all wanted new employment forms. In that debate the trade union of public sector employees had to protect the interests of those employees in the first place, she said. In his paper on the protection of interests in public services and utilities, Prof Piet Gevers (Antwerp University) stress the need for trade unions in these services and companies. In conclusion, Mr Jean-François Lebrun, deputy head of service of the DG V, explained very clearly the changes in the social dialogue.

Several organisations were accepted as new affiliates of Eurofedop: Den Kristelige Fagbevægelse (Denmark), Christian Trade Union Coalition (Czechia), TAO (European Commission), Federatia Aquarom (Romania) and SICOMP Communications Union (Portugal).

Mr Guy Rasneur was elected president of Europe. Mr Gerhard Böhm and Mr Bert Vancaelenberg were re-elected for a new term as treasurer and general secretary of Eurofedop respectively.

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