Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-13-Speech-4-124"
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"en.20030313.4.4-124"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, during the last Strasbourg part-session, the metalworkers came to demonstrate their dismay at the restructuring of Arcelor. They left Parliament in disbelief, disgusted at not having been heard, and some said that they would come back, but only to cause damage. The dockers were here this week, and they almost did destroy everything.
If Europe continues to ignore the social impact of the liberalisation policies it is implementing, there will be further explosions. Of course, Europe is not responsible for uncontrolled restructuring, but, at the very least, we could try to regulate it. For now, however, there is total refusal to do so. The Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Mrs Diamantopoulou, has already stated that there will not be a directive on the matter. Nor will there be a European code of good conduct for companies. Nothing. But when there is nothing, and no political outlet for despair, violence becomes the last resort. Today, whatever Mr Harbour thinks, the restructuring of large companies has become proactive, in other words, far from just fulfilling the need to adapt to market fluctuations, they are responding to financial calculations alone. These calculations are based on share price and anticipate the very short-term profits to be gained from a mass reduction in personnel costs. Ultimately, even where expensive social plans are implemented, the calculations are viable and there is a return on investment within two years on average. These stock market transactions, however, completely disregard the men and women whose lives they are destroying and the increased stress and workload they create for those described as survivors. They also ignore externalised costs such as public aid and unemployment benefit.
You might ask what Europe’s role is in this internal scheming within the Member States. Perhaps none, except that the vast market and the rules on free competition that it supports create areas where, apparently, anything goes. The Portuguese example of delocalising businesses is just a drop in the ocean, but it is representative. Europe must, at last, provide genuine answers to this trend, which is not an economic accident, but a result of financial plans in action, which can only lead to violence."@en1
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