EMPLOYABILITY AND SECURITY IN A FLEXIBLE GLOBAL LABOUR MARKET The decline in manufacturing is more severe in Britain than in other countries. We need to be open to clever thinking. Our traditional methods have failed to confront the challenges thrown up by technological changes, by the emphasis on boosting productivity and profitability.’ Unions need to help workers to become responsible for their destinies and to have the power to make a difference. One way unions can do this is to promote lifelong learning and training.‘British manufacturing prefers to focus on technology. But there is virtually no evidence to show that this alone increases productivity and profitability. As unions we are not rejecting change and new technology. The focus of our attention should be on serving the people we represent. Perhaps where we have failed is in our ability to steer the debate about technology and to be effective in supporting and empowering our members through better consultation with them.’ European Union initiatives to increase information rights and promote best practice should also be central to union thinking. However, British delegates pointed out that their experience has been that employers and successive governments have consistently resisted consultation and a greater information flow towards employees. At the same time the trade union movement has failed to take up the issue of lifelong learning and training – one recent survey shows that only two out of every ten trade unions raised this as an issue. Although the TUC has lobbied for lifelong learning and has encouraged legislation currently being debated in parliament which that could give statutory force to the concept of learning representatives(similar to health and safety representatives), there is still strong opposition from employers, and particularly from groups such as the Confederation of British Industry, to the idea of compelling companies to invest more in training.‘We as unions are saying it is effective and it works,’ said one British delegate, ‘while the CBI and employers resist any move on the part of the government to force the issue and make it a statutory requirement to support lifelong learning and training.’ German delegates were concerned about similar issues.‘The trade union movement in both the UK and Germany must open up to public/private partnerships, and must also attract young people. In this context it is useful to define trade unions’ medium- and long-term interests and the specific policies they should follow. Perhaps unions should build new ways of communicating, become more“customer-oriented” and give priority to satisfying their members.’ Individuals should be at the centre ‘Both the German and the British trade union movement should put education and customer orientation at their centre,’ remarked the delegate from VERDI(Vereinigte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft), the new giant Union of Service Trades Unions in Germany. ‘We have just amalgamated five different trade unions, all with very different experiences and expectations. We quickly realised that there is no uniform recipe for pleasing members. We need to be careful not to try to find a uniform path – one action for all, one structure, one defence. It is important to look at diversities and to develop European and international exchanges. We need as unions to come together to address international 10 © Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society