Obituary: Addio compagno Gabaglio !

The death of Emilio Gabaglio, one of the founding fathers of the European Trade Union Confederation and its General Secretary from 1991 to 2003, marks the end of an era for social Europe. Joël Decaillon (CGT), a former ETUC Deputy General Secretary, remembers him as “a highly cultivated man, who possessed formidable political skills, a great deal of tact, and was a very good listener”. During Jacques Delors’ presidency of the European Commission, Emilio Gabaglio was always hard at work with his associate Jean-Lapeyre (CFDT), who was ETUC’s Deputy General Secretary during Gabaglio’s three terms in charge of the confederation. Emilio Gabaglio is one of the people who forged social Europe, securing substantial progress on behalf of European workers, through social dialogue, collective bargaining and sometimes a trial of strength. As Jean Lapeyre recalls in Syndicalisme Hebdo, they achieved successes “in the form of Directives on Information and Consultation (2002) and on the establishment of European Works Councils (1994), as well as the many framework agreements signed, covering issues such as parental leave (1995), part-time working (1997), fixed-term contracts (1999) and the autonomous agreement on telework (2002)”. This was a time when European social dialogue at cross-industry level was productive, in contrast to its current lethargy. Emilio Gabaglio also pushed for the ETUC’s expansion, by inviting the CGT – the French trade union confederation historically linked to the Communist Party – to join it in 1999, and expanding its scope of operation to take in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Turkey. When we encountered him in Rome, just over five years ago, at a symposium organised by the late Claudio Stanzani, he was as enthusiastic as ever, and on learning that IR Notes was now being translated into Italian, he exclaimed, in perfect French, “alors il faut les aider avec notre réseau” [‘well, we must use our network to help them!’].