*Thank you Luxembourg! The elections are over! You reached the quorum! Thanks! Results published 07.12.2022.*

Voting has started in Luxembourg for the elections to the local staff committee (LSC), this is your local staff representative parliament. Each of the 5 lists on the ballot is either an OSP or a grouping of OSPs. Each list is a bit like political parties or groupings in national elections and parliaments. If you have not voted yet, please check our guide to vote video. Of course, Generation 2004 is participating in these elections – we are list 5. If you know our work AND you consider that this is enough information for you to vote for us, please go ahead. At which point we wish you a nice day and you can stop reading 🙂

There’s a minimum (‘quorum’): 2/3 of the electorate must vote for the election to be valid. We count that as 2425 voters out of a total of 3635. If this is not reached then the elections are repeated.

If you want more information, please find below an only slightly biased and not entirely serious comparison of your options for the 2022 elections. We apologise in advance for the sometimes confusing splitting, merging and naming of lists for the elections – and we are talking about only two elections here (2019 and 2022). Indeed, it seems that some OSPs are almost afraid of participating in elections with their real name, thereby questioning the transparency of the ballot paper. If all this is as confusing for you as it is for us (and we do this every day!): just vote Generation 2004. Even if you don’t like everything we do, at least you know what you get when you make your cross for Generation 2004 on the ballot.

The last Luxembourg LSC elections

We start our journey with the 2019 elections, where there were three lists on the ballot:

• Generation 2004
• Union Syndicale Luxembourg (USL)
• Together Luxembourg (Ensemble Luxembourg) which was a group of six OSPs (yes, we share the feeling that we have an awful lot of trade unions and staff associations in the Commission):
  • R&D
  • Solidarité Européenne
  • TAO-The Independents
  • FFPE
  • Union for Unity (U4U)
  • Union Syndicale Fédérale – Luxembourg (USF-L)

The graphic below summarises the 2019 elections in Luxembourg. The important part of this graphic is actually at the bottom: while each and every OSP claims that they are independent (some even put it in their names – if this is not enough proof that they are truly independent, we don’t know what is!)[1], the reality is different. At the central level in Brussels, a total of seven unions have formed a permanent grouping, called Alliance. Its members today (we have highlighted the Luxembourg [2] OSPs that are members of the Alliance):

• R&D
• Union Syndicale Luxembourg (USL)
• Solidarité Européenne
• TAO-The Independents
• Conf SFE CISL
• Save Europe
• FFPE (they joined the Alliance in 2022, so HR does not list them in its 2020 report)

It is up to you to decide how independent an OSP is in its decision-making if they are in such a permanent grouping since at least 2015! Of importance for Luxembourg here is the question of a correction coefficient. In 2019, USL advocated heavily for a correction coefficient. All other lists preferred a housing allowance. However, both positions then met in the Alliance. What do you do if you have two irreconcilable positions in such a grouping? Easy, you just do nothing, thereby avoiding any conflict within the grouping. Bottom line: nothing moved on this topic on the central level. Well, not quite: of course, Generation 2004 kept on pushing for Luxembourg on all topics, not just the cost of living – we are not a one-trick pony.

Distribution of 2019 votes from lists to OSPs to the central level. The percentage rates show the distribution of votes to the different OSPs within a list. Abbreviations are explained here.

The current Luxembourg LSC elections

With this background information, let us now jump to the ongoing elections of 2022. This year, we have 5 lists on the ballot:

1. ‘Ensemble pour Luxembourg’ is Union syndicale fédérale Luxembourg (USF-L)
2. Union for Unity (U4U)
3. ‘Luxembourg United’ is Solidarité Européenne (R&D Luxembourg) and FFPE
4. ‘USL reinforced by the Independents’ is USL and TAO-The Independents
5. Generation 2004

The following graphic visualises the 2022 election. What can we learn from this image?

1. The big common list called Ensemble Luxembourg from 2019 has dispersed over no less than four(!) lists. While there is certainly value in the slogan ‘united in diversity’, it seems that the unity from 2019 did not last very long. May we suggest ‘divorced after unity’ as a slogan?
2. List #1, ‘Ensemble pour Luxembourg’ is just USF-L. They are clearly playing with the name of the previous common list. Chapeau for this marketing move – we here at Generation 2004 hope that we convince you via our results and not some tricks with names.
3. List #2 goes alone, but they have only 11 couples. If you vote only for them, your remaining 9 votes are lost.
4. List #3 and list #4 might as well be called Alliance-1 and Alliance-2. On the central level, it makes absolutely no difference for which of them you vote. Speaking of differences: we don’t know what Alliance-1 differentiates from Alliance-2 or vice-versa – but maybe you do. Be careful of the answer, though: if the implementation of such difference needs support at the central level, than nothing will happen in the next three years!
5. Finally, list #5, Generation 2004. We are active both locally in Luxembourg and at the central level and we never hide behind artificial “united, together, ensemble, …” marketing gags. If you want to know what we have done for you in Luxembourg, have a look at the Luxembourg-specific part of our newsletter articles.

We hope that this article helps you make an informed choice for these elections. Please vote – if not for us, then for another list, but the next local staff committee must have a strong mandate or we will never get anything done on the cost of living problem here.

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[1] We here at Generation 2004 are still trying to find out of what exactly these trade unions are independent. If you know the answer, please tell us. Thank you!

[2] Luxembourg as in: appearing in one way or another for a vote in the Luxembourg LSC elections