The European Commission’s proposal to make working people foot the cost of the green transition by raising the price of petrol and household energy risks creating a Gilets Jaunes-style backlash against urgently-needed climate action. Workers facing an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events know better than anyone the need to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, so European trade unions support the more ambitious climate action contained in the Fit for 55 package launched today.

The ETUC is backing calls by Belgian unions for undocumented migrants to be given work permits in a bid to end a hunger strike by more than 400 people in Brussels. The group of undocumented migrants, many of whom have been forced to work in the shadow economy for up to a decade, began the action on May 23 to highlight their request for regularisation and their condition is deteriorating rapidly as it enters a fourth week.

Minister, Vice President, Commissioner, Ministers, colleagues of social partners and social platform, Managing the COVID Emergency was essential to protect jobs and businesses and make our labor market resilient. Now that we are getting out of the pandemic, we need to bridge the gap before recovery starts, in order to avoid an explosion of unemployment. Emergency measures to protect jobs, wages and working conditions, and to strengthen social protection systems must be continued for all the time necessary.

The European economy is set to recover faster than expected from the Covid crisis thanks to higher EU and national government spending, according to the summer economic forecast published today by the European Commission. According to the European Commission: EU GDP is on course to return to pre-pandemic levels later this year thanks to growth of 4.8%, which is 0.6% higher than projected in the Commission’s spring forecast.  The European Commission explained:

A group of Romanian trade unionists have today completed a four-day rolling protest between Bucharest and Brussels over the low wages forcing their fellow citizens to make similar journeys to find decent work. The “Caravan of Social Rights” made up of 13 members of the Cartel Alfa trade union set off on the journey of over 2,000 kilometres on Friday, stopping in Budapest, Vienna, Munich and Luxembourg along the way to stage protests outside Romanian embassies with the support of local trade unions. 

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

Trade unions are calling on the European Commission to name a date for the promised directive on corporate responsibility as a new report reveals rising levels of abuse in workplaces across the world. Attacks on civil liberties like arbitrary arrests and detention of workers, along with limits on the right to assembly or to join a trade union, have reached an eight year high during the pandemic, according to the new Global Rights Index released today by the International Trade Union Confederation.

The European Commission has today joined trade unions in calling on member states to address health and safety failures putting workers’ lives at risk – but stopped short of taking real action themselves. 

Treaty change must be on the table in the Conference of the Future of Europe if the process is to have a meaningful outcome, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini has warned EU leaders today. Speaking at a high-level ETUC event on the conference alongside its executive board co-chairs Guy Verhofstadt and Ana Paula Zacarias, Visentini said it must move past institutional “process” which has caused delays and focus on delivering “ambitious content” that can reconnect Europe with working people.

All three ETUC-affiliated trade unions in Italy (CIGL - CISL - UIL) are holding joint demonstrations all over the country on Saturday 26 June

Employers using software to monitor workers’ every movement are likely to be in breach of EU privacy laws, trade unions warn today as they launch a new report on artificial intelligence at work. The use of surveillance programmes which allow management to monitor every mouse movement and keyboard stroke of their workers – or even access their webcam and microphone – has grown during confinement.

Strasbourg, 19 June 2021 Thank you chair. The European trade unions and workers support this Conference and are highly committed to contribute to shaping a fairer European Union that takes care of people. When this process was launched there was a need to reconnect citizens to institutions, to overcome inequalities and social exclusion as consequences of the financial crisis and austerity policies, to cope with the challenges of climate change and digitalisation, to rebuild European democracy.

Influential MEPs have today committed to improving the Gender Pay Transparency Directive at a trade union protest for equal pay outside the European Parliament. Evelyn Regner, shadow rapporteur and Chair of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee, symbolically launched the ETUC “Equal pay needs trade unions” pledge, committing to secure the right of workers to bargain collectively for equal pay through trade unions. Rapporteur Kira Peter-Hansen and shadow rapporteur Marc Angel committed by video to support the pledge.