EMPLOYABILITY AND SECURITY IN A FLEXIBLE GLOBAL LABOUR MARKET Introduction: setting the scene for discussion Security and flexibility are crucial elements of future employment policy and are key challenges for Europe’s workers and employers. This was the main conclusion of the first-ever German-British trades union forum, organised jointly by the Anglo-German Foundation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. The two-day meeting, held at Esher Place, the Amalgamated Engineering& Electrical Union’s training facility in Surrey in May 2002, brought together for the first time over thirty leading representatives of the trade union movement in Germany and Britain. Delegates discussed and debated the challenges facing the trade union movement in both countries under the overall title‘Flexicurity: employability and security in a flexible global labour market’. Gero Maass of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation outlined three main themes: the future of work and society’s hopes and fears in relation to changing labour structures; the future of trade union development, notably its image and self-confidence; and the future of economic and social stability, particularly the role of a social security system in Europe. ‘Trade union membership is shrinking in Germany. Workers believe that unions are unable to settle professional problems, and many do not support the aims of the trade union movement,’ Mr Maass said:‘Our debate should concentrate on flexibility and examine the future development of the trade union movement and its links to society as a whole. We also need to look at the question of qualifications.’ Nikolaus Simon of the Hans Böckler Foundation echoed Mr Maass’s remarks.‘There are a number of challenges and subjects which we need to discuss – issues that are relevant to the whole of Europe but particularly to British and German trade unions. Central to this discussion should be the ideas of equal opportunity and of access to qualifications and ways in which workers can better themselves. We need to address the way trade unions as organisations allow people to achieve what they want. We need to look at why trade unions are no longer attractive to young, well-skilled workers and particularly to women, who are under-represented in general within unions. How sexy will trade unions be in a knowledge-based society? These and other related issues are the general challenges facing the trade union movement in both our countries.’ 1 © Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society