Dear AMCHAM members, partners and friends,
Over the past week or so, you likely have gotten a brown envelope in the post with the voting list for the upcoming Social election on 12 March. This election is important and is the basis for the selection of the persons who will represent employees during the tripartite negotiations between the government, management and employee representatives for the next five years. To help you decide who you should vote for, this issue of the AMCHAM Newsletter contains photos, logos and interviews with the Presidents of the three largest and most influential unions in Luxembourg; Nora Back from OGBL, Patrick Dury from LCGB and Robert Mendolia from ALEBA. I encourage you to read these interviews to understand the objectives, styles and agendas of these union leaders and their teams. And I strongly encourage you to vote.
The collaborative governance system which we have in Luxembourg ensures a place at the table for unions and encourages management, labor and the government to partner together to find solutions while avoiding major labor strife. This is a notable objective and has served Luxembourg well for many years. But, be assured there are differences of opinion between workers and management. One of the challenges we currently are facing is the reduction of attractiveness of Luxembourg as a business location as compared to other European countries. At present Luxembourg has a very high bankruptcy rate, an increased rate of companies leaving the country and a low rate of new companies coming into Luxembourg. In our 11 December letter to the principals of the new government, AMCHAM identified the eight most critical steps we would like the government to enact into law and two issues we would most oppose. We believe Luxembourg long-term best interests require a stronger pro-business agenda of initiatives and are engaging with the government as strongly as we can to make that happen.
I do not expect we will be able to convince the unions to fully support the entire pro-business, pro-expat agenda we think is best for the country. Likewise, we will not support a union agenda which we believe is harmful to the long-range best interests of the business community of the country and which further weakens Luxembourg’s attractiveness as an international and expat-friendly business location. But we do hope by engaging together and communicating together, we can encourage mutual understanding and the implementation of the best possible solutions for all concerned.
In this regard, I am particularly pleased to note that the President of LCBG in his interview, voluntarily added his own questions and answers to acknowledge the importance of English as a communication language and explains all of the steps his union has taken to make themselves, their positions and their services fully available to English speaking employees on an equal basis with the other official languages of Luxembourg! On behalf of our English-speaking audience I applaud LCGB for what they have done to reach out and serve the member of our English language community and make them feel welcome in the LCGB union.
Last week Daniel and I very much enjoyed attending the GOVSATCOM conference organized by Melanie Delannoy and moderated by Lisa Burke at the European Convention Center. My sincere compliments to both ladies for their excellent management of this world class event which brought the entire global space community here to Luxembourg! We will do our best to publish photos and a video in the near future.
Tomorrow evening is our second Carnival dinner dance party at the DoubleTree by Hilton and we are pleased by the high quality crowd we are hosting. I am not sure if we have any remaining seats available, but if you are interested, please contact Daniel@amcham.lu.
Our thanks to our members who are providing us with articles and press releases to publish in our Newsletter! Unlike some other journalists in Luxembourg, we do not charge for publishing quality news provided by our members… we only ask our members to make sure the content they give us to publish is well written and informative news that they themselves would be interested to read!
Our member benefits program continues to attract new members and we, in turn, are happy to help local retail companies connect with our English speaking members! Make sure to take a look at this section of our newsletter.
And, of course, another week bring another great recipe from our favorite chef, Bibi Wintersdorf. Enjoy!
With respect and our very best wishes,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman and CEO
AMCHAM.lu
