"A tripartite is always a compromise"

Patrick Dury has now been active in the Lëtzebuerger Chrëschtleche Gewerkschafts-Bond (LCGB) (in English: Luxembourgish Confederation of Christian Trade Unions ed.) for 33 years, including as trade union secretary, as general secretary and, since November 2011, as president. We met the 57-year-old for an in-depth interview.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: What do you need a trade union for in the 21st century?

Patrick Dury: If I just look at what the trade unions have helped to bring about in the Tripartite last year, what the trade unions do for the workers day after day in the collective agreements, and if I look at our membership consultation, then your question is superfluous. The trade unions are still needed today as they were 100 years ago, and they have achieved a lot in that time.

Why are you in the LCGB and not in the OGBL? What is the difference? After all, both unions claim to work for the interests of workers.

I have been in the LCGB for 33 years now. When I worked at Arbed in the late 80s, I was asked to join the union. The argument was that a person who worked in the steel industry had to be a union member because the unions had done so much for the livelihoods of the workers. My father also worked in the steel industry, so I became a member of the LCGB-affiliated SESM (Syndicat des Entreprises de la Sidérurgie et de la Métallurgie, ed.), which also had a strong presence among white-collar workers.