The Belgian metalworkers’ union affiliated to the Belgian General Federation of Labour (ABVV-FGTB) is splitting into three regional organisations or federations: one for Brussels, one for Flanders and one for the Walloon region. However, trade union leaders have declared that the organisation and coordination of collective bargaining in the metal sectors will remain at a national level
At an extraordinary federal congress of the socialist Federation of the Belgian metal industry (Centrale van de Metaalindustrie van België, CMB), some 400 union representatives took part in the vote on a new organisational structure for the union, with 85.5% of them voting in favour of it. As a result, the Brussels, Flemish and Walloon branches of CMB will now function almost autonomously. Each branch will decide independently on the union strategies and practices they want to deploy to reach their objectives, based on the statutory rules of the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV) and on the social and economic situation in their region (BE0105350F).
Impact on organisation
From an organisational perspective, both the union’s budget for the strike fund and its real estate will be divided between the Flemish and Walloon sections according to a distribution code. To a large extent, the available resources will be divided equally, which is surprising considering that the Flemish section counts in absolute numbers many more members than the Walloon division. CMB’s national Secretary General, Michel Taton, defended this solution at the congress as an act of solidarity, stating that ‘we do this because we care for each other’.
As with many previous political disputes on the federalisation of the Belgian state, Brussels represents a key factor in the discussion. The capital city, which is mainly French-speaking, is geographically situated in the Flemish region. As part of the CMB split, it was decided that Flemish metalworkers should maintain a guaranteed representation in the Brussels branch, where they form a language minority. Against this background, the union initiated an ‘alarm bell’ procedure through a new statutory clause that regulates conflicts based on presumed ethnic discrimination within the union structures. This course of action has been borrowed from the procedures developed within the federalisation process of the Belgian state.
A federal consultative structure will be maintained in the union to coordinate decision making in the important, but still federal and unitary policy fields of labour law, social security and national sector bargaining. However, the function of national secretary general will cease to exist.
Possible consequences and union reactions
The split of the socialist CMB into regional divisions represents an important milestone, as it is the first instance in a long time where a trade union has given up its national unitary structure. Historically, some sectors and occupations have always been organised along communitarian lines, as is the case with the Christian trade union, the National Federation of White-Collar Workers (Centrale Nationale des Employés/Landelijke Bedienden Centrale, CNE/LBC). Nevertheless, since Belgium reached an increasingly federalised state structure in the 1980s and 1990s, unions have been described as one of the strongholds in defending the national unity. The sector federations, which play a crucial organisational role in Belgian trade unionism, have almost always remained national, unitary organisations. The split of the important socialist metalworkers’ union, CMB, may be interpreted in this regard as the first, but not the last break-up of such a unitary organisation.
Some people within CMB see the split as the end of 120 years of solidarity; others pinpoint the increasing level of disagreement on strategies and tactics followed by the union activists in the two regions. A markedly different economic context and industry structure in the two regions has led to diverging opinions, as borne out, for example, in the recent protest against the ‘Generation pact’ (BE0510303F). Furthermore, a change in the distribution of the union’s leading posts has also raised internal tensions. Traditionally, the Walloon sections dominated the union. In recent decades, however, the Flemish have gained more influence in the union, due to the downsizing of the heavy industry sector in the Walloon region (BE0505301N) and the rise of the Flemish metal construction and machinery industry (BE0308305S, 122Kb MS Word doc). Moreover, a recent dispute regarding the involvement of the current secretary general as a youth in an extreme-right Flemish organisation has intensified internal tensions.
Commentary
For some time, radical Flemish politicians have been asking for a regionalised system of collective bargaining (BE0209303F), because of the different economic trends prevailing in the two major Belgian regions – Flanders and Wallonia. The trade unions are anxious that the current metalworkers’ federation split does not bring about renewed calls for this. Hence union leaders have been eager to minimise the impact of CMB’s split on the still unitary system of wage bargaining in Belgium. They have declared that the organisation and coordination of collective bargaining in the metal sectors will remain at a national level (BE9912311F).
Guy Van Gyes, Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA), Catholic University of Leuven