The Left at Work – Why Do Unions, More Than Leftwing Parties, Today Promote Activation Policies?

Organised by ETUI

Speaker: Pieter Vanhuysse, Head of Research and Deputy Director, European Centre Vienna
Comments: Agnieszka Piasna, Researcher ETUI and Ania Skrzypek, Senior Research Fellow FEPS 
Moderator: Philippe Pochet, General Director ETUI
Organised by ETUI

Briefing: 
This Monthly Forum will explore the diverging roles of leftwing parties and trade unions in determining active labor market program (ALMP) spending in the OECD in recent years.  Pieter Vanhuyesse from the European Centre in Vienna will argue that unions increasingly take into account the distinct re-employability worries of their members. They have come to consider ALMPs, especially those sub-programs most directly useful to their members, as their second-best priority. In countries where high employment protection levels, which is considered the first-best goal, have not been achieved, unions will promote ALMP spending as an alternative way to offer their members some measure of labor market security. On the contrary, leftwing party power has no effect on ALMP spending generally and even a negative effect on job creation programs. According to Pieter  Vanhuyesse larger and more strike-prone unions are associated with higher ALMP spending overall and especially in labor markets where jobs are not yet well protected.

Download the full article and a related Policy Brief here.

Venue: : ITUH,  Bd du Roi Albert II, 5; 1210 Brussels, room B
A light lunch will be served from 12h00 onwards in front of the room.

To register for this event: Stéphane Bouillon (sbouillon@etui.org)