The European Research and Information Service (ERIS) was established in 1989, by trade unions in the south and south-west in response to Jacques Delors’s, President of the European Commission, strong advocacy of the European social model and pan-European trade union organisation at the 1988 TUC Conference.
ERIS’s objectives are to work in support of the trade unions and:
- Provide regular employment and legal updates
- Increase awareness of Europe and its implications for the region
- Facilitate links with trade union colleagues in the European Union
- Organise joint seminars/conferences between ours and other European regions
- Provide digestible information
Today, ERIS has established partnerships and information sharing services with many European trade union colleagues in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and beyond. For over twenty-two years ERIS have organised and supported working groups, guest speakers and visits between trade union organisations and partners and looked at a wide range of issues including industrial and economic policy, health & safety, employment rights, workplace democracy and EU law.
Following Brexit it is natural people will ask the question “Why ERIS? What can ERIS do to assist trade unions and their members now that the UK is no longer in the European Union?”
The answer is that ERIS is even more relevant today than ever before. We have a crucial role to play here and abroad for the following reasons:
1). ERIS has a voice – silence implies acceptance.
2). ERIS stands for international solidarity. That is well expressed in a UK now outside of the EU through European contacts. ERIS has those and we are developing more.
3). The 2019 TUC Congress agreed a motion that said “Congress will continue campaigning for reforms to help build a Europe for the many through solidarity across borders”. ERIS’ work embodies that commitment.
4). ERIS will continue its work in support of trade unions in the UK and across Europe, by holding meetings, providing research, information, regular briefings and specialist publications, hosting visiting speakers from abroad and arranging exchanges with European colleagues.
5). ERIS will keep fighting to win a guarantee that present and future European standards in worker protections, employment laws and health and safety are maintained in the UK. These are under threat from Johnson’s Government.
6). ERIS will fight social dumping and the creation of Singapore-on-Thames. We will oppose the UK becoming a tax haven and a deregulated island off mainland Europe.
7). Countless UK citizens work in EU Member States, covered by EU regulations, customs and practices. Also, many EU citizens remain working in the UK. ERIS will use its domestic and international contacts to fight for the fair and equal treatment of all these workers, irrespective of nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
8). European Works Councils still exist and multi-national companies in the UK employ staff who should continue to be covered by them. Our expertise and contacts can help unions to amend EWC constitutions to protect participation.
9). ERIS will support unions in safeguarding Information and Consultation Agreements.
10). The UK is continuing its membership of NATO and ERIS can help trade unions and their members employed in the MOD, private defence companies, shipbuilding and aircraft manufacturing through our connections with European trade unions.
11). UK trade unions will continue their membership of the European TUC and other international trade union sectoral bodies. ERIS’ contacts abroad can assist UK trade union colleagues in liaising with European counterparts, sharing experiences, knowledge and cooperation.
We live in an ever changing world of globalisation, new technology, altered dynamics of production and work, and with profound political changes like Brexit, increasing the uncertainties of everyday life. For all these reasons there is an increased the need for ERIS to maintain and build links between UK unions and their international counterparts, with individual trade unionists, here and abroad.
If you are not already affiliated to ERIS then join us now and support UK and European trade unionists in their common struggle for dignity at work, fair treatment and decent pay and conditions.
ERIS is against Euro neo-liberalism. ERIS is for a Europe for working people, working together with other European trade unions and the European Court of Human Rights.
ERIS Officers:
President – Basil Bye
Chairperson – Bob Lanning
Co-Chair – Rob Martin
Vice-Chairperson – Bryan Hulley
Secretary – John Merritt
Treasurer – Paul Dibben
Affiliations – Alan Goodfellow
Publications team – John Merritt, Basil Bye, Rob Martin, Tim Brooks
Website – Tim Brooks
ERIS Board:
Tim Brooks
Pat Abrahams
John Early
Gert Hillebrand
Rob Martin
John Merritt
Ron Mintram
Leon Triman
Janet Wall