9th PERC Summer School

The 9th PERC Summer School took place in Frankfurt, 26-28 September 2016. This forum traditionally brings together trade union leaders and officials from broad Europe, who discuss together the challenges the European trade union movement is facing and outline ideas to develop union actions.

The meeting started evening prior with reception hosted by the Federal Executive Board of the DGB in collaboration with Europäische Akademie der Arbeit (EAdA) (European Academy of Labour) with welcome speeches by Reiner Hoffmann, DGB President; representative of Frankfurt city & presentation by the EAdA.

On a first day morning session German Unions presented activities of the project “Fair Mobility”, followed by presentation of IG METALL advice centre for refugees “Der Laden” (“The Shop”). During this session was also presented project “Mach meinen Kumpel nicht an” (“Don’t touch my buddy”, trade union project against racism and for integration and respect).
Afternoon session “Migration in Europe: challenges, policies and institutions” was covered by speakers from OECD (outlook on migration processes and perspectives), ETUI “Europe under multiple migration challenges: state of play, what is happening, what is at stake” & professor Bruno Sergi from University of Messina “The Geography and Economics of Immigration. The role of remittances”. ITUC Human & Trade Union Rights, ETUC, ILO ACTRAV & ILO Labour migration representatives, followed by national examples and discussions.

Session on “ILO dimension and processes” was organized to for member organization to get better understanding of ILO procedures & Trade Unions activities. Luc Cortebeeck, Chair of ILO Workers’ Group presented Group’s work, International Labour Conference and Governing Body. Sergejus Glovackas, ILO Moscow & Victor Hugo Ricco, ACTRAV presented the plan for activities of ACTRAV. Luca Visentini, ETUC/PERC General Secretary & Jaap Wienen, ITUC Deputy General Secretary explained Governing body election processes and role of the regions.

ITUC and ETUC priorities and actions in 2017 were presented by Luca Visentini, ETUC/PERC General Secretary, Jaap Wienen, ITUC Deputy General Secretary and Stephen Benedict, Director of Global Organising Academy.

During session “Dimension of Multinational enterprises” Luca Vicentini presented Wage convergence initiative. “Gaps in posting regulations/Employment in transport and construction sectors” - Werner Buelen, EFBH; Edwin Atena, ITF-FNV. Adam Lee from IndustriAll presented Trade union initiatives in the supply chains.

The last session of the meeting “Challenges to Promotion of Trade Union and Labour rights in Europe” started by presentation of PERC Secretariat introduction on human and trade union rights situation. Andrzej Adamczyk, NSZZ Solidarnosc, and EESC reported on progress on EU-association agreements and EU ENP review process. Toby Sexton, EEAS explained European Neighborhood Policies Review process

9th PERC Summer School was organized with the financial support of ACTRAV and in cooperation with DGB Frankfurt

ACTRAV activity and priorities
ACTRAV migration
ACTRAV Labour migration
ACTRAV overall planning
B Sergi University of Messina
ETUI EU migration
ILO Governing body
ILO Labour migration
OECD
Organising GOA
IndustriALL supply chains initiatives
Irakli Petriashvili speech (RU)