Underwritten and Undermined

The independence of Amnesty International is founded on funding: Amnesty doesn't accept grants or subsidies of any kind from any public source. International PEN, the world's oldest human rights organisation, is also dependent on its membership and on donors. Writers support writers (and PEN staff, presumably) in their efforts to defend the rights of other writers.

Spanish trade unions, like many of their European counterparts, do not rely on their members: they rely on the State, to the tune of sixteen million euros in 2009. Such generic funding is only part of the picture, as unions qualify for funding under a wide range of programmes for their work in research, training, and development. Yet fewer than one fifth of workers belong to unions, so it's difficult to know whose interests are being defended. Workers lucky enough to have been signed to open-ended contracts (which bind worker and employer until the former's retirement) are difficult and very expensive to dismiss. Other workers may have limited social rights, even in the public sector. I know public university staff who taught for ten years under administrative contracts that did not entitle them to unemployment benefits if they had lost their jobs. Their unions made little noise about the issue and no-one went on strike.

Labour reform would mean stripping the most privileged workers of some of their privileges. Yet, if carried out justly, it would also mean improving the lot of those workers who are, in all but name, second-class citizens.  For the time being, the unions have responded to the civil service wage cut by calling for a general strike. The state will be funding a strike against the state as Spain floats on the edge of a maelstrom of insolvency. So be it. What's worth asking is whether public funding of unions has mad them less accountable to workers for the simple reason that they do not need union dues to operate. They are part of the system, paid to play the part they play in collective bargaining and thus make collective agreements possible. Collective bargaining is a right; it is also a necessity for the state, as it simplifies labour law incalculably. When union leaders refer to civil servants whose contracts are iron-clad as "the weakest" members of a society where one worker out of five is unemployed, something other than class interest is at play.