Laval un Partneri, however, withdrew from negotiations with unions and refused to sign up to a registered agreement. It imported workers from Latvia who stayed temporarily in Sweden to complete refurbishment work in Vaxholm.
The Swedish unions instituted a ‘blockade’ against which involved a boycott of the company. No physical impediments or violence was involved. Their actions were a typical response to any employer who refused to sign up to registered agreements –whether the employer was Swedish or non-Swedish.
The case eventually found its way to the European Court of Justice who ruled that the action of unions was illegal.
While it recognised that workers had a right to take industrial action, this right was of lesser importance than the EU rules of open competition.
Even the normally moderate John Monks of the European Trade Union Congress acknowledged the grave danger the ruling posed. In a submission to the EU Parliament’s employment committee he said,
‘Bolkestein derailed the EU Constitutional Treaty. The Laval case, in particular, could damage the ratification of the EU Reform Treaty as awareness of its implications spreads’.
He further suggested that the Laval case - and a similar Viking case - creates a ‘licence for social dumping’.
This judgement showed how clauses in the Lisbon Treaty such as Protocol 6 which states that the EU must ‘include a system for ensuring that competition is not distorted’ are a danger to trade unionists.
They only strengthen the legal foundation for judgements like that in the Laval case and so help to create a wage cutters’ charter.
The tens of thousands who marched in the Irish Ferries dispute will not want to see their efforts undone by the neo-liberal measures which are enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty.
[CLICK HERE] to download full text of the ETUC submission to the EU Parliament Employment Committee on Laval, Introduction by John Monks General Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation...
