The EU must agree the rather limited migrant relocation plan proposed today by the European Commission, said the European Trade Union Confederation.
Although limited to 20,000 people, and despite possible opt-outs for some EU member states, the scale of situation in the Mediterranean makes a relocation plan absolutely necessary.
Tomorrow – Tuesday 19 May - European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans will launch his controversial ‘better regulation’ proposals.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) sets out the big questions it will be asking about ‘better regulation’:
Will EU law apply equally to all?
A basic principle of law is that it applies to all. Will the European Commission propose to exclude small businesses from some EU regulation?
EU Finance Ministers must compromise with Greece to avoid renewed financial market speculation against the Euro and against the national debt of other Eurozone countries warned the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
“By playing hardball with Greece, EU Ministers risk triggering renewed financial market turmoil for the Euro and for Eurozone countries national debt” said Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the ETUC “as well as dragging the Greek economy down.”
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is extremely worried by the so-called ‘national consultation about immigration and terrorism’ recently launched by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The letter launching the consultation and the attached questionnaire is a perverse attempt to criminalise migrants and fuel populism by making a clear and direct connection between migration and terrorism. Wrong assumptions can only lead to bad policies and are surely not in the interests of Hungarian citizens.
According to the European Commission’s spring forecasts, just released today, the economic recovery is taking hold. After seven years of economic under-performance, and with the European economy still 2% smaller than it was seven years ago, this news is long overdue.
The EU emergency summit on the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea failed to agree on the one most essential action: search and rescue in international waters, said the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
On April 28, European Trade unions will commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day – remembering the 150,000 people who have died in the EU from occupational cancers since the European Commission suspended work on legislation protecting workers from chemicals that cause cancer.
Every year 100,000 people in the EU die from occupational cancers.
In October 2013 the European Commission stopped developing exposure limits for chemicals that cause cancer because it is reviewing ‘red tape’ – with the result that only 3 cancer-causing chemicals have European exposure limits!
The ETUC is calling on European Council President Donald Tusk to call an emergency Council meeting to agree action to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean Sea.
This article was first published by the Global Call for Climate Action on their website : http://tcktcktck.org/2015/04/jozef-niemiec-what-is-just-transition-and-why-do-we-all-need-to-get-behind-it/67880
By Józef Niemiec, Deputy Secretary General, European Trade Union Confederation
Climate action is not simply an environmental issue. It requires society to make major changes to the economy. It cannot be imposed from above.
The European Trade Union Confederation gives its full support to colleagues in Arab countries in their defence of people’s rights, in particular the right to a dignified and safe life.
The ETUC in particular subscribes to the statement of the Arab Trade Union Confederation https://www.ituc-csi.org/declaration-of-the-arab-trade.
The European Trade Union Confederation welcomed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of İsmail Sezer v. Turkey (application no. 36807/07) as a small but important step forward for trade union rights in Turkey.
The case concerned a disciplinary measure taken against a teacher, who held office in a trade union, for
taking part in a panel discussion organised by a political party. The Court found that the reprimand imposed on Mr Sezer constituted a restriction of his freedom of association.
“It is clear that Tunisia has since the revolution been in the crosshairs of Islamist terrorist groups that are trying to destabilise the country and to ruin its economic prospects through their actions,” declared Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), in Brussels.
Speech given by Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation
[Check against delivery]
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends, Brendan,
It’s an honour for me to be invited to deliver this lecture, commemorating Sir Pat Lowry: well-known as a former Chair of ACAS.
In its first judgement on the Directive on temporary agency work (C-533/13 AKT ), published today, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its interpretation of Article 4 of the Directive.
“We welcome our colleagues from Montenegro and FYRO Macedonia into the European trade union movement” said Bernadette Ségol, General Secretary of the ETUC, “and will work with CTUM, UFTUM and FTUM to improve working conditions for all people in Montenegro and FYRO Macedonia, and to ensure the full adoption of EU social and trade union rights on the way to full EU membership. The destiny of the people of Montenegro and FYRO Macedonia and of the EU is together.”
Luca Visentini is the proposed successor to Bernadette Ségol as General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.
A meeting of the ETUC’s Executive Committee voted the 46 year old current Confederal Secretary of the ETUC as ‘General Secretary Designate’, subject to final decision by ETUC Congress in October in Paris.*
European trade unionists today made a united call for tax justice, and demanded new national and European actions to end to tax evasion and avoidance, tax havens and aggressive tax planning.
EU Governments must break a 7 year impasse and agree 18 weeks minimum paid maternity leave says the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).
To mark International Women’s Day the ETUC is
• Highlighting the need to raise European maternity leave rights to international standards, and
• Urging EU Governments to reach agreement on a proposal that has been blocked since 2008!
European trade unions are ready and willing to give social dialogue a new start, and will participate actively in the High Level Conference on Social Dialogue on March 5*.
“Social dialogue is in need of a new start” said Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). “There needs to be more concrete results and better implementation at European level. At the same time, national social dialogue needs to be repaired from the damage caused by ‘structural reforms’ and other EU and national policies adopted since the crisis.”
Dear Readers,
We have just published the February 2015 edition of the ETUC Newsletter.
To read the document, please click here.
Enjoy!
The European Commission’s Energy Union package is ambitious and broad-ranging, says the European Trade Union Confederation, but its ‘action points’ lack detail on how it will be achieved.
The ETUC welcomes the inclusion in the Energy Union package of references to:
