In theory, you have the choice between 3 different lists in the elections for the Local Staff Committee Luxembourg. In practice, however, the true choice will be between 2 alternatives: Generation 2004 (list 1) and the ‘old’ trade unions (list 2 and list 3) who 15 years after the 2004 reform still continue to claim extraordinary privileges for the few chosen.

At a closer look, the picture is even worse. Both lists are dominated by the Alliance (‘Confederal Alliance of Free Trade Unions’) [*] of “independent trade unions”, which mean small, at the Commission level often non-representative organisations. (NB: A trade union or staff association is considered representative if it represents at least 6% of staff at Commission level.) Since only representative organisations have access to resources for their operation, non-representative organisations form federations in order to preserve their functions. In the federation called Alliance, member organisations understand themselves as being independent as they have their own governing boards (comité éxecutif) and oppose some of each other’s opinions, in fact they depend on the goodwill of the largest organisation within the Alliance called Renuveau & Democracie (R&D), which is representative in itself. R&D therefore does not depend on others to survive but forms a federation with others in order to gain in strength without much effort. (See Chart 1: Composition of the Alliance and the footnote below).

This Alliance has so far consequently blocked all proposals by Generation 2004 that if implemented would have led to real improvements in the situation of colleagues most hit by the 2004 and 2014 reforms. With each vote for any of its member organisations you give it more strength against our cause to restore staff unity.

List 2 belongs entirely to Alliance. If you happen to remember the electoral ballot from 2016, you recall that the name of the Union Syndicale Luxembourg (USL) list had an addition: Alliance. This addition was necessary in order not to confuse voters as there has been another list set up by the Luxembourg section of Union Syndicale Federale, from which USL has just split off and joined Alliance. USL claims to be independent and Luxembourg-based, but in the end it is non-representative at Commission level and forced to join a federation with other trade unions. Alliance happily took up USL due to its long tradition in Luxembourg and swallowed its representativeness.

List 3 – Ensemble Luxembourg/Together Luxembourg is made up of 6 entities, 3 of which are also members of Alliance.

1. Fédération de la Fonction publique européenne (FFPE)
2. Renouveau & Démocratie (R&D)
3. Solidarte Europeenne (SE)
4. Association des fonctionnaires indépendants pour la défense de la fonction publique européenne (TAO-AFI)
5. Union syndicale fédérale Luxembourg (USF-L)
6. U4U-RS [**]

And your votes for this list will be distributed among the participating organisations in a way that 46% (almost half!) of the votes (representativeness) will benefit the Alliance according to the “pre-electoral” agreement among the list members. (See Chart 2: The distribution of representativeness).

Why did so many disparate but after all similar organisations get together for this election? Why this strange interlinking of apparently different components? One clear reason lies in the majoritarian electoral system in Luxembourg that allows the list winning the elections even by a handful of votes more to get most seats in the staff committee and therefore rule without taking into account different views.

List 2 and List 3 have the same historical roots: not only USL and USF descend from one and the same big union, but also another two, the R&D and U4U, were born as split-off from Union Syndicale.

List 2 and List 3 differ in their views on the functioning of the Local Staff Committee and on the solution to the problem of cost of living in Luxembourg. As regards these points, list 3 is copying the opinion of Generation 2004, while they refused any cooperation with us during the elections. Now they are trying to sell you a different story.

It is now up to you to decide if you are in favour of such a “circus” or if you trust those who dare challenging this old-rooted distributive/assimilative system and run by themselves under a logo reminding everyone the connivance of staff representatives and administration in deteriorating salary and working conditions and dividing staff.

No matter the number of lists, your choice will be simple: List 1 that defends the rights of all staff, including post-2004, post 2014 and Contract Agents and List 2-List 3 that at the end of the day only defend the privileges of the few. Only if you vote for Generation 2004 you know what you will get and decide yourself whom your vote supports.

United we stand and united we win!

Vote Generation 2004!

[*] DG HR, 2021, Human Resources in 2020 p.92 shows current status:

Note (p.91 Human Resources in 2020).

Ensemble Luxembourg/Together Luxembourg is made up of 6 entities,

Alliance contains:

1. Renouveau & Démocratie (R&D)
2. Conférence des syndicats européens et syndicat des fonctionnaires européens (Conf. SFE)
3. Union syndicale Luxembourg (USL)
4. Solidarité européenne (SE)
5. Association des fonctionnaires indépendants pour la défense de la fonction publique européenne (TAO-AFI)
6. Save Europe

Union syndicale fédérale (USF) contains:

1. Union syndicale Bruxelles (USB)
2. Union syndicale fédérale Luxembourg (USF-L)
3. Union syndicale Ispra (USI)
4. Union syndicale Petten (US Petten)
5. Union syndicale Karlsruhe (US Karlsruhe)

Regroupement syndical (RS) contains:

1. Union for Unity (U4U)
2. Unité et Solidarité – Hors Union (USHU)
3. Syndicat des Fonctionnaires internationaux et européens (SFIE)

FFPE contains:

1. Fédération de la Fonction publique européenne (FFPE)
2. Action & Défense (A&D)

[**] U4U-RS is not listed in Human Resources in 2020 nor does it appear on the list of OSP  websites: MyIntracomm, Staff Matters, Trade Unions and Staff Associations (OSPs), ‘related information>see also’. As above Regroupement syndical (RS) contains 3 OSPs, one of which is U4U. Is this a regrouping or a new entity?

1. Union for Unity (U4U)
2. Unité et Solidarité – Hors Union (USHU)
3. Syndicat des Fonctionnaires internationaux et européens (SFIE)