The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) speaks with a single voice on behalf of European workers to have a stronger say in EU decision-making.
United action for Social Europe
The ETUC aims to ensure that the EU is not just a single market for goods and services, but is also a Social Europe, where improving the wellbeing of workers and their families is an equally important priority. The European social model – until the onset of the crisis – helped Europe to become a prosperous, competitive region with high living standards.
Quality jobs, workers’ rights and a fair society
The ETUC defends fundamental social values such as solidarity, equality, democracy, social justice and cohesion.
It fights for:
- pay rises for workers
- full implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights
- high quality jobs for all
- a high level of social protection
- gender equality and fair pay
- good health and safety at work
- freedom of movement for European workers, and an end to social dumping
- high quality public services accessible to all
- a European framework to raise the standard of national social legislation
- action to combat climate change while promoting a Just Transition for workers
- promotion of these European social values in other parts of the world
The last ETUC Congress in Vienna in 2019 adopted a Manifesto that lays out demands in the areas of economic governance and employment policy, trade union rights and social dialogue, ambitious social standards and fair globalisation.