Responding to the review of competition policy launched today by the European Commission, ETUC Confederal Secretary Isabelle Schömann said:   “A reform of the EU’s competition policy is badly needed. The current rules and approach to competition enforcement are increasing inequality by helping to further concentrate economic power into the hands of a few major companies while undermining collective bargaining and workplace democracy.

ETUC Midterm Conference Lisbon, 8-10 November 2021 Opening speech of Luca Visentini, ETUC General Secretary   [To be checked against delivery]   Esteemed authorities, Dear colleagues, comrades, and friends,  

With women earning 14.1% less than men, ETUC is warning that equal pay cannot be achieved unless minimum wages are increased, and the value of work carried out by women is reassessed.   The warning comes for the EU’s Equal Pay Day on 10 November, just a day before the European Parliament’s Employment Committee votes on proposals to strengthen the proposed EU directive on Adequate Minimum Wages, and as the proposed EU directive on gender pay transparency is undergoing scrutiny by European Parliament committees.     

Minimum wage workers in 11 EU member states spend at least 40% of their income on rent, new research shows ahead of a European Parliament vote on the issue. People working full time are left with less than half of their wages to pay for food, heating and transport after rent in five countries. In a further six, rent accounts for between 41% and 48% of pay.

Fourteen Governments– including United States, Germany, France and UK - signed up at COP26 to support a socially ‘Just Transition’ to net-zero emissions.  

Dear Readers, We have just published the October 2021 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

The ETUC expresses its solidarity with public sector workers in Slovakia and their union KOZ SR campaigning for a fair pay rise. Hundreds of workers demonstrated outside the government’s headquarters on Wednesday as the second round of collective bargaining negotiations took place – not only to support their negotiators but protest against the dramatic reduction in living standards of other workers and citizens, particularly pensioners, amid increases in the price of food, electricity and housing due to inflation.

The ETUC is calling for investment and fair wages in the care sector after a new report revealed the sector has been hit by an exodus of workers since the pandemic. Between 2019 and 2021 over 400,000 care workers left the sector, according to European Public Service Union EPSU. On today’s Global Day of Action for Care, ETUC calls on the EU to: Insist on investment in care - through the ‘EU Care Strategy’ promised by President von der Leyen, and

Dear colleagues, My name is Luca Visentini and I speak here on behalf of trade unions from all over Europe. The citizens’ panel have discussed and pushed forward an impressive and very ambitious set of proposals and demands, which together with the inputs posted in the online platform will enable us to make the future of Europe better and more inclusive. I would like to mention just two of these ideas.

Commenting on the conclusions of the European Council, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said:

  VTC Tripartite Social Summit for Growth and Employment - Transforming Europe's recovery into long-term sustainable growth supporting more and better jobs   Opening speech of Luca Visentini, ETUC General Secretary (20 October 2021)  [To be checked against delivery] Presidents von der Leyen, Michel, Janša, Vice President, Commissioner, Ministers, Colleagues from the Social Partners,

  EUROPEAN COMMISSION WORK PROGRAMME 2022 Potentially positive initiatives include   Missing include Seriously bad gimmick includes Protection of Workers from risks of exposure to asbestos at work European Green Deal (on zero pollution, right to repair and plastics) Media Freedom Act Care Strategy Recommendation on Minimum Income  

Responding to the relaunch of the review of EU economic governance, ETUC Confederal Secretary Liina Carr said: “The EU’s fiscal rules failed in the past, have been abandoned in the present and are unfit for the future. This review is an important step towards a Europe that puts the people and planet before arbitrary and self-defeating debt targets.