The Federal Council would like to regulate the relationship with the European Union this year. With the so-called package approach, new agreements should be possible. Even before the first round of negotiations began, the President of the Swiss Trade Union Confederation, Pierre-Yves Maillard, criticized the draft for the negotiations in the “NZZ am Sonntag”.
If the Federal Council does not move on the EU package, it risks a total blockade, threatens union boss Pierre-Yves Maillard. The unions had signaled a willingness to compromise when it came to wage protection, and now they expected concrete things in return:
- no adoption of the EU expense regulations
- more generally binding collective employment contracts
- no liberalization of rail transport
- no opening of the electricity market
The fact that Maillard is now pushing ahead with these demands is a foretaste of the conflicts to come, says SRF Federal House correspondent Raffael von Matt.
The president of the trade union federation wants to negotiate the highest possible political price for accommodation. It’s political power play.
“With the interview he is signaling to the Federal Council and the employers: ‘We are a force to be reckoned with, we won’t just give in,’” von Matt further assesses. “The president of the trade union federation wants to get concessions, he wants to negotiate the highest possible political price for concessions. It’s a political power play.”
Pierre-Yves Maillard leaves no doubt that he is going all out: “There is no chance that the unions will agree to the package presented by the Federal Council. Nobody should have any illusions about that.”
The employers’ association also speaks of power play
At the request of the “Tagesschau”, the employers’ association refers to statements made by its president Roland Müller in mid-December, which are still valid. Müller asked the rhetorical question whether the unions were abusing the situation for “ideological union politics,” “which cannot be justified by the negotiations with the EU. This includes the call for minimum wages throughout Switzerland and the expansion of collective employment contracts.”
The unions were accommodated and they even agreed on some issues. The employers’ association today described Maillard’s interview to the “Tagesschau” as a “power play”.
Unification is anything but self-evident
Maillard’s interview in the NZZ was a bang, says von Matt. “It signals that an agreement with the unions is anything but a given.” As a result, the European political mood is somewhat clouded because the unions are exerting their political power here. “But the Federal Council has it in its hands to come up with a solution to the EU dossier that is capable of winning a majority domestically,” says von Matt.