The November 2004 Staff Committee elections in Luxembourg ended with S&CS gaining 12 seats, US 7, the last mandate going to the A&D-L. What can we say about a result like that?

We congratulate S&CS (FFPE, SE, SFIE) for the splendid victory won with a little help from the A&D.

The A&D-L had four goals in the November 2004 election: (1) remain an honest and militant union, (2) survive as a recognized OSP, (3) break the Union Syndicale’s grip on the Staff Committee to prevent further surrender to the (mal)administration, (4) gain as many seats as possible.

We reached the top three, but not the fourth one. Inter alia, there are three explanations. First, in November 2004, our program was still too radical for the majority. No apologies asked, or offered. Second, because of its support for the Reform we chose to attack the Union Syndicale almost as hard as they deserved. Naturally, this might has given us an aggressive image that frightened voters away from us almost as much as from the US. Third, the old election system was very unfavourable to minorities; under proportional representation we would have had three seats.

Here are the main topics that deserve the A&D’s attention; (1) salaries and pensions, (2) resistance against the REC/CDR with its dubious promotion lists, (3) defending individual rights, (4) defending our children’s well-being/education (CPE, Lux II, Mamer, horizontal split), (5) the discrimination of officials appointed after 30.04.04, auxiliaries and contractual agents (6) a democratic election system based on proportional representation for Luxembourg, (7) a debate about industrial democracy within the EU Institutions (co-decision, Mitbestimmung, like they have in Germany). There is so much to do in the foreseeable future, that the A&D-L will pragmatically concentrate on areas of agreement with the new majority.

You should demand co-decision rights for the Staff Committee, even if that is only a demonstration of healthy self-esteem, at first. Let us hear how the (dis)appointing authority explains why Mitbestimmung is great for German civil servants, but bad for us.

Most colleagues are aghast at the disadvantages brought on by the Reform; all votes for SE&CS and A&D-L can be counted as solidly anti-Reform. It seems probable that many, perhaps most, of Union Syndicale voters are against the Reform as well.

As of today, only flagrant liars will say that the majority of staff agrees with the Reform. Please follow up your vote with action. The twelve Members of the new CLP majority have promised to defend our interests, so do your best to support them. Naturally, our various representatives and committee members need some of your support too.

What will the A&D-L do during the next three years? We will support the majority as far as our values allow. There are some important tasks that a union can perform better than a Staff Committee; by concentrating on them, we help to free the resources of the new majority for accomplishing its mandate. It is good that there will be more of our publications, which present otherwise under-reported facts, independent analysis and critical opinion. And a little sarcasm never killed anyone, unfortunately. (Just kidding.)

Savez-vous que nos collègues du Parlement ne travaillent pas le 23 décembre? Naturellement, toutes
les OSP ont demandé au Directeur général de la Commission de suivre l’exemple du Parlement.