“Together for fair deal for workers”

More than 100 member organizations representing over 45 million workers across Europe gathered in Berlin from May 23-26, 2023 for the Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). The event also marked the ETUC’s 50th anniversary. After five decades of struggle, the ETUC has never lost sight of its objective: to continue the fight for a fair and sustainable future for workers and their families.

The Congress is not only a place to bring together the European trade union movement in all its diversity, but also a moment to recapitulate on the past four years, and on what remains to be achieved in the next four.

The ETUC highlighted the challenges facing European trade unions today, and those they will have to face in the future, in a rapidly changing economic and social context. The economic and cost-of-living crisis currently affecting Europe is just the tip of the iceberg, concealing a series of problems that have worsened over recent decades: the weakening and privatization of public services, inequalities in social protection, job insecurity, labor shortages, the relocation of European industries and the rise of the extreme right in the EU are just a few examples.

Added to this is the emergence of new business models that are turning workers’ daily lives upside down, notably with the rise of artificial intelligence in the workplace and the transition to ecologically fair business models.  Faced with the rapid pace and impact of these developments, a new approach is essential to protect workers.

In the action program adopted at its Congress, the ETUC calls on European trade unionists and all those who uphold the ideals of the European trade union movement to take ambitious action. In particular, the program commits the ETUC to :

• strengthen the mobilization capacity of trade unions at national, regional and European level, in particular by coordinating trade union mobilization in close collaboration with national affiliates;
• put pressure on the EU to come up with concrete measures to protect jobs and workers’ incomes, and support unions and workers in their fight for real wage increases;
• provide more practical support to affiliated organizations in strengthening collective bargaining. In this context, the ETUC is committed, among other things, to supporting member organizations in implementing the directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU;
• fight against job insecurity, notably by making permanent work contracts the norm in the EU, and by demanding a ban on precarious jobs that penalize the most vulnerable workers. The ETUC is also committed to banning unpaid traineeships, calling for the adoption of a European directive on quality traineeships,
• anticipate changes in the context of green transition, by calling for a directive on just transition in the world of work;
• act to counter the digital transition, by calling on the Commission to propose a directive on the use of algorithmic systems in the workplace. In this context, the ETUC stresses the need to ensure that human control always prevails over automated decision-making processes. The ETUC is also committed to negotiating a framework agreement on telework and the right to disconnect, with a view to proposing its adoption in a directive;
• support the trade unions in their campaigns for shorter working hours;
• commit to a strong European industrial policy, with effective public investment to support quality jobs. The ETUC will also defend investment in public services and social protection to put an end to poverty and inequality, as well as a European monetary policy focused on full employment and quality jobs;
• strengthen European social dialogue, which cannot take place in the absence of strong national social dialogue.
• work for a real right to training and lifelong learning.

Other congress topics included the Parliament’s employment policy agenda, the rise of the extreme right in Europe, and the forthcoming European elections in 2024.

As is the case at every congress, the new composition of the ETUC secretariat was adopted:

• Wolfgang Katzian, President of the Austrian Confederation of Trade Unions (ÖGB) was elected ETUC President.
• Esther Lynch (ICTU) was elected General Secretary of the ETUC.
• Isabelle Schömann (DGB) and Claes-Mikael Stahl (LO-Sweden) were elected Deputy General Secretaries of the ETUC.
• Ludovic Voet (CSC), Tea Jarc (ZSSS) and Guilio Romani (CISL) were elected Confederal Secretaries of the ETUC.

Luxembourg was represented at the ETUC Congress by Véronique Eischen, member of the OGBL Executive Board, Jean-Claude Reding, vice-president of the Chambre des salariés du Luxembourg, Georges Merenz, president of the Landesverband (FNCTTFEL) and vice-president of the OGBL. The LCGB was represented by Katia Neves, in charge of the joint European Secretariat of the OGBL and the LCGB (SECEC).

As an ETUC member organization, the OGBL supports the ETUC’s ambitious action program. Given its importance for employees in Luxembourg, it will also be the subject of discussions and an action plan within its bodies.

Posted by OGBL, June 5, 2023