Madrid, 01/06/2005 To be checked against delivery President, It is a special pleasure for me to be present with you at the Congress of the UGT, and to be with my friend and colleague, the President of the ETUC, Candido Mendez. In the two years, we have been working together, I have developed tremendous respect and affection for Candido - feelings which, by the way, are general within the European trade union world. He is a credit to the ETUC and to the UGT and to Spain.

Brussels, 26/05/2005 ETUC hopes this aid will be allocated to priority social objectives: education, health, social rights, decent work, social protection, social dialogue, particularly as part of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

09/01/2014

London, 09/05/2005 To be checked against delivery It's almost 20 years since I first became associated with the IPA. For me the partnership journey was a response to the wreckage of the miners' strike of 1984/85 and the loss and diminution of large swathes of UK manufacturing (and trade union membership). There was little doubt in my mind that the adversarial model of industrial relations was playing a major part - not the only part, not in most cases the biggest part - but a major part nevertheless in the UK's industrial decline.

Brussels, 13/05/2005 “Stability and reform are not enough. If we really want to relaunch the Lisbon agenda, then we also need to act on the demand side,” says ETUC General Secretary John Monks. “Europe can do this by using the strength derived from acting together.''

Brussels, 10/05/2005 Although it represents some reduction in workers' potential involvement, the ETUC recognises that the standards achieved by the EU directive on workers' participation in the European company (SE) have been maintained. Negotiations on the degree of workers' board-level representation must be started in every case where different levels under national law are concerned or workers from one of the merging companies enjoyed this right before. Thus, no workers will lose their participation rights in a cross-border European merger.

Brussels, 09/05/2005 This draft directive is based on a European social partner agreement concluded by ETF and CER (employers) signed after nine months of negotiations on 27 January 2004. This agreement defines European minimum standards regarding breaks, daily and weekly rest time and maximum driving time. It also includes aspects relating to the balance between professional and private life for personnel concerned by limiting the number of rests away from home.

Brussels, 21/04/2005

Brussels, 20/04/2005 Ms Gebhardt tries to get it right and excludes, from the outset, labour relations and services of general interest from the scope of the directive. We do not have the whole picture yet, says the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), we are waiting for the second part. But it is clearly a step in the right direction. It is important to make the directive watertight against social dumping, and totally to exclude labour and employment law from the scope of an internal market directive.

Dundee, 18/04/2005 To be checked against delivery I bring there greetings from the European TUC to the Scottish TUC. Very understandably the emphasis here is on the General Election on May 5. Those of us who lived and worked for the Movement through the dark days of the 80s and 90s will know how important this election - any general election - is for the trade unionism.

Brussels, 14/04/2005 (Speech) To be checked against delivery JM/cd History European social dialogue practices have over time become more diversified and broader in scope. At every step of the way, the ETUC has sought to play a positive and pro-active role.

Brussels, 12/04/2005 The ECB's concern about inflation is not justified by the facts. Instead it should be acting to stem the renewed decline in economic growth, says ETUC General-Secretary John Monks, in response to last Thursday's ECB decision to keep rates unchanged, and President Jean-Claude Trichet's press comments.

Brussels, 30/03/2005 After due consideration by its executive committee, the ETUC today called on the European Commission and the European Parliament not to accept the argument of UEFA that there should be a “sports” exception to the principle of EU wide freedom of movement of labour.