On Europe day, trade unions are calling for the European Union to return its focus to the promise of increased living standards for all citizens made in the Schuman declaration.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is taking part in celebrations being held in Brussels today to mark the 75th anniversary of the Schuman declaration. The EU’s founding father wrote that the pooling of coal and steel production should be done “with the aim of contributing to raising living standards and to promoting peaceful achievements.”
Today, the cost of living is still the issue that European citizens most urgently want to see addressed by Europe, with the latest Eurobarometer also showing that the share of people who expect their standard of living to decrease over the next five years has risen significantly since the European elections.
However, the new European Commission has not committed to any new pro-worker legislation since it took office on 1 December. By contrast, it has proposed eight pieces of ‘simplification’ legislation at the behest of employers’ associations and the EU fiscal rules are pushing member states towards further austerity at a time when investment is needed.
Only through strengthening collective bargaining can the Schuman declaration’s promise of improved living conditions be fulfilled. On Europe Day, the ETUC calls for greater support for trade unions and collective bargaining so that workers can bargaining for higher wages and more secure jobs
We call for:
· The European Commission to fix its public procurement directives to ensure that public money goes only to companies whose workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
· Member States to take immediate steps to ensure 80% collective bargaining coverage and the full respect of trade union rights.
· The introduction of a job protection scheme, similar to the ‘SURE’ programme, to protect employment and to prevent irreversible losses in our economic capacity. A restructuring fund is as relevant now as it was in 1950.
· The suspension of the EU’s economic governance rules to allow member states to adopt economic policies to support long-term investments and sustainable growth.
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“On Europe Day, it is important to recall that the founding vision of the European Union was one which saw economic integration as a means of delivering increased living standards for all its citizens."
“Today trade unions call on EU leaders to focus again on ensuring that the single market delivers rising living standards, which are the number one priority of citizens. It is by bargaining collectively that workers and their unions unlock improved pay and conditions, this is why the EU needs to do more to promote collective bargaining.
“There has been a big increase in the number of people who expect their living standards to get worse rather than better, which shows Europe is not currently working as it was intended.
“To win the confidence of working people, strengthening collective bargaining must be now put at the centre of the European project. This is how Europe’s leaders must respond with urgency, prioritising policies which raise pay, create quality jobs, and protect the vulnerable.
“But instead, the Commission is currently side-tracked with a Trump-style deregulation agenda being pushed on them by corporate lobbyists who want to undermine decades of social progress.
“On Europe Day, the trade union movement calls for a return to Schuman’s founding vision of a social Europe which is once again focused on raising the living standards of working people.”
