Bucharest We were on time to meet National Trade Union Bloc at 9am sharp on a Monday, until we found that there was some confusion, and they expected us not a 9, but 11am. We were apologetic, and they were graceful, so we recovered from our first misstep. The union had a PowerPoint presentation for us, but technical difficulties were the order of the day, and despite switching between three different computers, we never saw it, but they promised to send it along later. The person we were supposed to meet was late, working on the later time assumption, so in a bit of good fortunate the president of the union, Dumitru Costin spent time with us. Brother Costin told us he had often visited the United States, but rather than the typical demand that we example the Trump phenomena, he wanted us to explain why California was such a mess and homelessness was so out of control.
All of that was preamble. Once President Costin got going, we had an informative and fascinating dialogue. The Blocul National Sindical or BNS is the 2nd largest of five national labor federations in Romania with 320,000 members across a multitude of public, state-owned, and private jurisdictions. 40% of their members are women. They work in 40 sectors with 42 regional offices nationally and over 900 local union branches. BNS claims to be the only federation with a research and economics department. The labor density in Romania has gone from 90% to only 20% now.
First, we got a lesson in the problem of low wageworkers and the national minimum wage and its challenges. For workers, there are deductions for pension, taxes, and health care so on the minimum wage a worker is lucky to keep 45% of their wage after deductions.
Next, we heard about the back-and-forth legislative effort to curb unionization. Before 2010, there was sectoral bargaining. In 2011, the labor code was amended to end such bargaining, limit the right to strike, and more. In 2024, intercession of the ILO, the International Labor Organization, led to some restoration of rights, including the introduction of a tripartite regime composed of business, labor, and NGOs which is now allowed to preemptively review proposed legislation affecting labor and without the approval of this body can not go to parliament for action.
Where President Costin was most animated was in discussing his major reform in office by implementing what he called the “smart” trade union and digitizing their information, data, communications, and more to modernize their program. Essentially, they are now recording and collecting information on all of their members that includes everything from their skills, to profession, church, and so forth. We were meeting it what seemed to be their boardroom with microphones at each chair, but it was next to a television type studio where they recorded videos for their members and for their public communications. They were using their database now to tailor their comms to their members’ interests. They also used their smartphone digital platform for receiving grievances, inquiries, and other servicing requests from their members. The rollout of this program had gone over several years. Costin said the biggest problem with “smart” unionism had been the slow adoption of the system by the union leaders themselves, though finally he claimed they were making progress in that area.
When asked if they had an organizing department, Costin seemed to say that they had a way to sort inquiries in the union to respond and direct the requests. From our meeting it seemed that perhaps they did not have a dedicated organizing program, though in answers to other questions, it was clear that they see themselves competing with the other federations.
When Florian Marin arrived, he explained his portfolio within the union was largely policy and dealing with the European Union. It was interesting to hear, whether with unions, nonprofits, or other organizations how much business and the affairs of the EU were a constant and recurring theme.
We wished all well, offered our thanks, and ran into the rain to our next appointment.
