The crisis was used as a window of opportunity by European neoliberal elites and institutions – with the active complicity of member states – to impose further cuts in public expenditures, and to proceed to the dismantling of labour and social rights. This phenomenon, if more acute in so-called periphery countries, is however to be witnessed everywhere in Europe.
transform! has decided to dedicate more resources and energy to issues revolving around labour and trade unionism: European attacks on labour rights, trade unions’ responses to the casualization of precarious employment, the state of affairs with regard to the growing convergence between social movements and trade unions, alternatives capable of meeting social needs and technological evolutions, etc.
This workshop will be the first step towards the creation of a European network gathering social researchers and trade unionists capable of providing social movements and trade unions with latest infos with updated panoramas of the struggles against labour markets’ reforms across Europe.
Programme
Friday, 6 May
09:30 – 09:45: Welcoming Address and Introduction
- Maxime Benatouil and Adoración Guamán
09:45 – 10:15: Growing Diversity in the European Trade Union Landscape
- Steffen Lehndorff, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Work, Skills and Qualifications (IAQ), University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany
10:15 – 10:45: Collective Discussion
10:45 – 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 – 12:30: Session 1 / Precariousness and Labour Law Reforms in the EU
- Fernando Rocha, Fundación 1 de Mayo, Spain
- Jakub Grzegorczyk, Workers’ Initiative, Poland
- Andrea Lampresse, Labour Law researcher, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy
- Adoracion Guaman, Labour Law associate professor, University of Valencia, Spain
- Maxime Benatouil, transform! europe, France
12:30 – 13:00: Collective Discussion
13:00 – 14:00: Lunch Break
14:00 – 14:30: Criminalisation of Union Action
- Gianni Rinaldini, President of the Claudio Sabattini Foundation, Italy
14:30 – 15:00: Collective Discussion
15:00 – 16:30: Session 2 / Panorama of European Trade Unions’ Alternative Proposals
- Sara Lafuente Hernandez, Researcher, Free University of Brussels, Spain
- Bruno Estrada, Fundación 1 de Mayo, Spain
- Reingard Zimmer, Labor Law Professor, Bern School of Economics and Law, Germany
- Christian Pilichowski, Espaces Marx, France
- Miguel Martinez Lucio, Professor of International HRM, Manchester University
16:30 – 17:00: Coffee Break
17:00 – 17:30: Collective Discussion
Saturday, 7 May
09:00 – 10:30: Session 3 / State of Convergence between Social Movements and Trade Unions
- Sebastian Franco, Alter Summit, Belgium
- Klara Cozlova, Gender Studies, Czech Republic
- Albert Recio, Professor, Department of Applied Economics, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Catalunia
- Dora Fonseca, Researcher at the Department of Sociology, University of Coimbra, Portugal
10:30 – 11:00: Collective Discussion
11:00 – 11:30: Session 4 / Fragmentation of Production and Action Strategy
- Matteo Gaddi, Punto Rosso, Italy
- Sigfrido Ramirez, transform! europe, Spain
- Raul Lorente, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Valencia, Spain
- Gilles Pansu, member of the employee representative committee of Altran, France
11:30 – 12:00: Collective Discussion
12:00 – 12:30: Lunch Break
12:30 – 13:30: General Conclusion and Discussion on the Next Steps