EU workers unite

According to the European Commission's latest estimates, some 8.5 million Europeans will lose their jobs over the next two years, with unemployment hitting 10.9 percent in the euro zone. As a result, social unrest across the zone could increase as workers meet the crisis with strikes and protests. Some say it's a potentially explosive situation.

"The unemployment figures are of great concern…we are heading towards a social crisis," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

To raise awareness of the issues facing European workers, trade union representatives are holding a series of demonstrations from May 14 - 16. Up to 200,000 people are expected to take to the streets of Madrid, Brussels, Prague and Berlin, said Reiner Hoffmann, deputy secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which is sponsoring the "Action Days."

"There is a huge opportunity right now for us to forge a new social deal for Europe," Hoffmann said, adding that many politicians are committed to avoiding job losses, and that more companies are listening to what trade unions have to say.

However, he also acknowledged that there's a general sense of frustration that, on the EU level, not enough is being done to protect workers from the effects of the financial crisis.

Employment summit a "missed opportunity"

This was evidenced by the fact that a recent employment summit in Prague, which was meant to bring all EU leaders to the table, was effectively downgraded after many heads of state decided not to attend. Instead, it ended up being a troika summit of the current Czech and future Swedish and Spanish EU presidencies, plus representatives of trade unions and employer groups.

The meeting resulted in a 10-point plan to urge the bloc to increase access to employment and promote mobility, but the social partners at the meeting didn't sign it.

Fabian Zuleeg, senior policy analyst at the European Policy Center, said the summit was a missed opportunity for the EU to come to terms with how the bloc's economic and social models might be challenged by the changes in the labor market.

As an example, he cited the "flexicurity" models that have enjoyed considerable success in Scandinavian countries in recent years, thanks to healthy dialogue between unions and employers. Under flexicurity, unions accept a high degree of flexibility for employers as long as there is a strong safety net for workers and active policies to help people get back into jobs should they become unemployed.

"It's that kind of social contract that will be tested quite strongly now," Zuleeg said.

Anti-capitalism on the rise?

If governments are seen to be dropping the ball on social protection, far-left political organizations could gain ground. In France, for example, angry workers threatened with lay-offs have taken to trashing company premises and even holding executives hostage in "boss-napping" incidents.

As their actions become more radical, so do their politics, say observers by way of explaining the rise of the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), which was formed out of several smaller parties in February. Since then, it claims to have tripled its membership under the charismatic leadership of revolutionary postman, Olivier Besancenot.

And while most European unions would eschew the hard-left tactics embraced by parties such as the NPA, they too are benefitting from the crisis.

According to the ETUC's Hoffmann, the EU member states that had seen a decline in union membership in recent years have managed to stop this trend and are recording greater participation. There has also been a noticeable increase in public sympathy for unions, he said.

"This has been shown in Germany, for example, in public opinion polls and on the whole, public interest in unions has significantly increased," said Hoffmann.

In the meantime, the ETUC will continue its campaign for a new social deal for the continent, the backbone of which would be an agreement from the EU to commit 1 percent of its economic output to job creation, research and innovation, and to guarantee stronger workers' rights, better pay and a "major increase" in government welfare spending. "The EU needs to take the lead on the macroeconomic level," said Hoffmann. "We are a single market, we have a joint currency, and that means there should be a proper joint response."

While there's no denying that extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, on the whole, experts agree that Europe is well-positioned to weather the social impact of the coming unemployment crisis.

"We need to consider how to generate more employment, but we are rightly proud of having a minimum level of social protection in Europe," said the European Policy Center's Zuleeg. "We're not going to give that up even if we have rising unemployment."

Author: Deanne Corbett
Editor: Michael Knigge