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Dumpa Byggnads
Feb 17, 2004An advertising campaign by the Swedish contruction worker's union has the temerity to suggest that preventing immigrants from competing on price helps them avoid exploitation. Basically, by not working, you're not being exploited, goes the reasoning. Of course, unions, like any other interest group, should look after their members, so if Swedish construction workers want to lobby the government for mercantilist laws to protect them from having to compete with eager hardworking Poles and Latvians, let them; but they must not be allowed to get away with baldfaced lies: They are not on the side of the poor; immigrants are not being exploited when they undercut Sweden's union rates. Instead, it is Swedish consumers who are being exploited by high prices when they cannot access competitive labor markets.
The whole point of free trade and the free movement of labor — indeed, the raison d'Ítre of the EU — is that countries specialize in producing those goods and services they have a comparative advantage in. For Poles, their advantage is price. For Swedes, it is technology. Both countries will have far more winners than losers when they trade goods and labor, but it is important to realize that you cannot have those winners without the losers. The solution is not kneejerk protectionism, it is training those who lose out so they can find new jobs. A generous welfare state makes this solution all the easier.
No luck getting this message across in Europe. Except for Ireland and the UK, all current EU member states will prevent acceding member states' citizens (except the minuscule ones) from looking for work on their turf when they join, for up to seven years. Read this Guardian Special report. It reads like an ode to callousness.
And it is the perfect recipe for disillusionment. Take one EU, problems and all, then throw out the redeeming bits. Now stuff it down the newcomers' throats. The upshot: Belgian EU citizens can work in Sweden because they are already rich. Polish EU citizens cannot, because they are too poor.
At least the British government "says it expects economic benefits from migrant workers," according to the Guardian. Why can't anyone else see this? Jean Monnet is turning in his grave.Under helgen best‰mde jag mig redan att jag skulle skriva h‰r p svenska om Byggnadsarbetarefˆrbundets annonskampanj som jag m‰rkte up i tunnelbana fˆrra veckan. Idag, lyckligtvis fˆr er som pratar b‰ttre svenska ‰n jag, skrev Peter Wolodarski p DN allt som jag ville s‰ga, men i mycket b‰ttre svenska och i mer detalj. Kampanj ‰r skamlig.
Jag vill bara stryker under nÂgra saker. Jag kan fˆrst att Byggnads vill tillvarata deras medlemmars intressen, och att det betyder att de inte vill ha invandrare som jobbar fˆr mindre pengar h‰r i Sverige, d‰rfˆr att Byggnads inte ‰r konkurrenskraftig med invandrare. Men Byggnads ljuger helt enkelt n‰r de pÂstÂr att de vill hj‰lpa invandrare undvika utnyttjande. Invandrare som kommer till Sverige som byggnadsarbetare tj‰nar mer pengar h‰r ‰n hemma. Det ‰r inte dumpning. Dumpning betyder s‰lja under kostpris fˆr att ˆdel‰gga konkurrensen.
EUs utvidgning bevisa att det inte ‰r invandrare som utnyttjas, det ‰r vi svenska konsumenter som ‰r utnyttjat av Byggnadsarbetarefˆrbundet. De ‰r fˆr dyra i den nya EU.
Comments
As I understand it, in most of the current EU countries, it's not absolute bans on workers from the accession countries, rather fairly high limits on their numbers that are put in place. So, it's undignified and ugly, but in the grand scheme of things, not that callous.
Posted by: Aidan Kehoe from 213.94.217.98 on February 17, 2004 04:05 PM
Actually, it says "guest workers", not "immigrants". Otherwise I couldn't agree more with your analysis.
Free trade seems to be running into difficulty all over. I wonder, though, if the current bulge in protectionist and mercantilist sentiments actually reflects a trend, or is simply a combination of US presidential candidates' pandering to frightened voters ("I'm about saving US jobs!") and wealthy EU countries' jitters about the upcoming expansion ("The Poles are coming!").
On a different note, these posters implicitly equate cheesecake poses with exploitation. Evidently that's a strong enough meme in Sweden for these ads to work. Would the average urban American or Dutchman automatically make that connection?
Anyway, hats off to you for your brave battle with the rigors of Swedish.
And Jame...Jingoism? Don't you mean something more like xenophobia?
Posted by: Robert from 212.151.68.247 on February 17, 2004 05:03 PM
I feel uneasy myself using the term "guest workers", as if they should be grateful for the trouble they're putting us through for hosting them. Perhaps "migrant worker" is a better term, one that also incorporates illegal immigrants.
I take those terms to mean different things. Though I'm not sure whether there's any difference in their legal status.
An "immigrant" is a legal alien: a person with a permanent residence permit who may (or may not) be in it for the long haul. "Migrant worker" is resonant of my California childhood: workers, mostly Mexican, who follow the harvest - presumably short-termers, and very likely illegal.
"Guest worker" or "g‰starbetare" presumably springs from "Gastarbeitar". It has the feel of a translation in either English or Swedish. Sounds legal. In Sweden, they're also called "arbetskraftsinvandrare". In the sixties, Sweden had such a labor shortage that companies recruited workers in Turkey and the Balkans. The workers were given ordinary work and residence permits and employed on the same terms as locals. I agree that the term sounds condescending, as if the jobs were some sort of generous alms.
Nowadays, many Poles and Balts work in Sweden as direct subcontractors to building companies. Since they bill their employers as subcontractors rather than working under collective agreements as Swedish employees, they deftly circumvent Sweden's odious employment rules. They're not guest workers, in the sense of those workers from the sixties. They're not immigrants (invandrare) either. They're foreign nationals making what for them is good coin. And they're brutal competition for Byggnads, who are understandably miffed.
Tough.
The ugliness of those glarey pictures is spot on.
Posted by: Robert from 212.151.60.172 on February 17, 2004 10:26 PM
Yeah, xenophobia. But I've had Teddy Roosevelt on my brain recently.
Posted by: Jame from 202.85.11.222 on February 18, 2004 02:21 AM
Robert: I don't agree that the term sounds condescending. If it's from German, for most people it means what it says, no more, no less.
Posted by: Aidan Kehoe from 213.94.217.98 on February 18, 2004 12:50 PM
real men don't unionize. real men build own house. real men found own WMD.
Posted by: mlorf from 217.209.114.20 on February 18, 2004 06:50 PM
This is "welfare nationalism" at work. It is quite logical that this campaign has been very successful, since LO - the Swedish Trade Union Confederation of which Byggnads is a member - not only funds a large part of the Social Democratic Party (SAP) but lobbies i n s i d e the party. The president of LO is on the board of the party. Thus, there is no clear distinction between party and trade union. In effect, this means no clear distinction between union and government since SAP has virtual monopoly on government power. And this in a country with a weak judiciary (not for us a constitutional court), a clown of a figure head of state-monarch and a parliament in which MP:s rubber stamp whatever the party leadership decides, lest they be ostracised. In the end the result is that Polish and Baltic workers will come anyway (they are already here) and work for much less pay, without any legal protection. Byggnads can pride themselves with having protected their (probably dwindling numbers of) employed members. And by the way, how come there is a shortage of housing in all bigger cities in Sweden?
Posted by: Niklas from 213.89.63.151 on February 20, 2004 09:26 PM
dumpning ‰r r‰tta ordet varfˆr betala en svensk medborgare 150 sp‰nn i timmen n‰r dom kan f en polack fˆr 35 sp‰nn i timmen? ska dom hit och jobba s ska det va p lika villkor! s det blir den som jobbar p bra och gˆr ett bra arbete som har jobb och inte den som jobbar dumpar lˆnerna
Jingoism is certainly on the move in Europe, whether in the form of cultural protectionism, anti-Islamic symbolism or the Dutch plan to expel 26,000 asylum seekers - including people who have been in the country for over a decade and whose children,have been attending Dutch schools for years. I just read about that one in today's FT.
Given the constant social strains in my home country, USA, I don't feel schadenfreudal or righteous. Just sad to see erstwhile liberal democracies behaving badly. But this happens in any democracy; moods swing against rationality; politicians pander to base instincts. There's nothing to do but fight and write, argue and annoy, slog and blog.
Posted by: Jame from 202.85.11.222 on February 17, 2004 03:34 AM