Vaccinations and the role of trade unions

Dear members, colleagues, friends and partners of CESI,

The population’s views on the Covid measures and vaccination (obligation) couldn’t be more divided, and the tone of the debate shows that the blocs are becoming increasingly irreconcilable.

According to a resolution of CESI’s Presidium from June 2021, “vaccinations are an indispensable tool to bring down Covid-19 in the long term and protect the health of the citizens, the continued business activities of companies as well as the seamless provision of public services. However, general obligatory vaccinations -enforced for instance by threats of dismissal of certain categories of workers in case of non-vaccination- are not an adequate way to proceed in the fight against the Covid pandemic. Threatening workers with the termination of employment contracts or work relationships burdens the functioning dialogue and long-established trust between workers and management upon which successful business and public service provision depend. More and targeted awareness-raising campaigns to encourage and convince all citizens and workers of the benefits of a vaccination against Covid-19 is a more effective and promising alternative”.

I believe that for us unions, there is more to it.

Recent studies seem to corroborate the assumption that vaccine opposition have, to a certain extent, been linked to precariousness. And in a recent article for the NZZ, Maurizio Ferraris, Italian philosopher and professor at the University of Turin, takes the position that the loss of social ties, loneliness as well the absence of perspectives are fertile grounds for conspiracy theories – and hence vaccine opposition.

Caroline de Gruyter, Europe correspondent and columnist for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad, writes in a recent opinion piece, that “social and political trust are declining. As a recent report by the University of Basel showed, one of the reasons why anti-vax movements in Germany and Switzerland radicalise so fast and so easily is precisely the fact that many citizens have drifted away from mainstream society – there is little that binds them together with other citizens, not even trust in scientists and doctors.”

Against that background, the societal bonds that trade unions bring cannot be valued enough. Beyond collective bargaining, social dialogue and interest representation, they can – and should – act as ‘intermediary bodies’ to engage with their membership to re-build social ties, re-connect citizens and re-store their trust in institutions. Trade unions can provide essential contact, empathy, understanding, dialogue, and not least persuasion.

They must play a mediation role. In a highly emotionalised context, where two sides face each other in a seemingly irreconcilable way, they are the glue that holds societies together. And they should be aware of it; in a determined, self-confident, and responsible manner.

Because all workers count.