Brussels, 04/03/2013
Europe is in the business of pursuing a double strategy of austerity. To reach overambitious deficit targets, deficits and public expenditure are being severely slashed. At the same time, attacks on wages and collective bargaining systems are spreading from member state to member state, thereby risking a downwards spiral of wage competition.
This double strategy of austerity is not working. Fiscal austerity, together with wage austerity, has pushed the European economy into a double dip recession and is directly responsible for the fact that unemployment is rising to intolerably high levels. The ETUC calls upon European leaders to change course and to trade in austerity for a policy that focuses on investment, jobs and growth.
As Bernadette Segol, General Secretary of the ETUC, told the meeting: “The social situation cannot be ignored. There is enormous pressure out there. Leaders have to listen and shift policy away from austerity towards policy that brings people hope… the hope for a job and hope for a decent job with fair pay”.