Trade unions have to change the way they do business, not only to survive but to ensure the European social model is relevant in the next century, the ICTU general secretary, Mr Peter Cassells, has told the European Trade Union Congress (ETUC).
He was making a keynote speech to the ninth statutory congress of the ETUC in Helsinki, Finland. He is the first Irish trade union leader to make a major address to the congress, which is attended by 1,000 delegates representing more than 50 million trade unionists.
He said clinging to traditional ideals of group solidarity was no longer enough. Unions must continue to "promote collective action", he said, "but we must always do so to enhance individual freedom, to enable the individual gain greater control of his or her working life, to ensure that they have the opportunity to develop their individual personality. The power of such a vision to motivate and to lead workers should not be underestimated."
This meant that unions had to pay more attention to demands from the public for better services and to the demands of their own members for career paths and more flexible contracts.
One consequence of these changes was that unions had to accept that "industrial relations and social policy today lag far behind people's perceived needs".
"It may be that many of the protections which we as unions rightly put in place in the era of mass production are now barriers to individual development in a more flexible society."
Mr Cassells said all the social partners had to recognise they had failed to modernise the European social model. There had been a shift from heavy industry and mass production to knowledge-intensive jobs.
Long-term unemployment had been the lot of many low-skilled workers unable to enter the new jobs market. There were far more women in the workforce, who often had different employment requirements from men, and most workers wanted greater flexibility without sacrificing security.
"The best approach is to recognise the positive aspects of flexibility and to modernise our labour law and social protection systems to accommodate this. The big challenge for unions and employers in Europe lies in reconciling the two objectives of promoting more flexible forms of work to enable companies meet the new needs, and eliminating the negative aspects of such forms of employment by providing greater security and protection for those workers."