Dedalus and Arianna

Icarus and Dedalus: two projects, one common goal

Dedalus and Arianna has far-away origins. In fact, it is a project inserted in the framework of an effort launched in 2011 with the Icarus project, Information and Consultation: Approaches of research coordinating good Union Standards.

By mean of Icarus, CGIL Lombardia together with its partners, promoted a 12-month work plan dedicated to the topics of workers’ information and consultation in multinational enterprises, aimed at acquiring more knowledge and preparing useful tools for training and union action concerning the business system of multinational groups and at improving the relationship of cooperation and mutual information among union representatives on the local sites, union officials, and members of European Works Councils.

Icarus has counted on the participation of the following regional trade union organizations CFDT Rhones Alpes (France), Comisiones Obreras de Catalunya and Unión General de Trabajadores de Catalunya (Spain), DGB Nieder Sachsen (Germany), TUC Southern and Eastern England (UK), FRATIA CNSRL (Rumania), CISL Lombardia (Italy) and enjoyed the scientific support of IRES Emilia Romagna (Italy).

One of the main points of Icarus was the part of the project dedicated to research, which was divided into a quantitative and a qualitative phase. Thanks to these tools, it was possible to map the needs of EWC members and to conceive formulas to further coordination between them and union organizations.

The results of this research were then taken as a base for an international training seminar conceived to be reproduced in the different national contexts.

Today, the results of the research, the operational tools, and the practices of cooperation experimented during Icarus make up the foundations for the Dedalus project. For this reason, the two projects need to be considered as one single larger work aimed at improving trade union action in EWCs and furthering cooperation between the different trade union organizations in the network.