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On 10 July 2014, ahead of the next round of US-EU trade negotiations, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) issued a Declaration of Joint Principles on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), calling for a trade agreement that prioritises “shared prosperity and sustainable social and economic development”.

The Declaration of Joint Principles is fully in line with the adopted UNI Europa position on TTIP and includes calls for the TTIP to:

• achieve a “gold standard” agreement that improves living and working conditions on both sides of the Atlantic and guards against any attempt to use the agreement to lower standards or impinge on democratic decision making;
• not undermine provisions for the protection of workers set down in laws, regulations or collective agreements, nor such collective trade union rights as freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining and the right to take industrial action;
• explore adopting transatlantic mechanisms in line with EU instruments to provide for information, consultation and participation of workers in transnational corporations; stronger protections for workplace safety and health; and requirements to ensure equal treatment for “temporary” workers with regard to pay, overtime, breaks, rest periods, night work, holidays etc. (Mode IV);
• to have at its core state-to-state commitments and modes of conflict resolution; it must reject all provisions that allow corporations, banks, hedge funds and other private investors to circumvent normal legislative, regulatory and judicial processes, including investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS);
• to not constrain national and local choices in the provision of public services, services enshrining the public interest such as postal services, and not jeopardize the stability of the financial system;
• deeply integrate legislatures and social partners in the negotiating and implementation process as well as in the monitoring process after the agreement is in place;
• to enshrine Labour rights in the body of the agreement that are applicable to all levels of government, and subject to dispute settlement and trade sanctions;

Should EU and US negotiators fail to pursue these goals, the Declaration of Joint Principles calls for the suspension of the negotiations.

“TTIP is an opportunity to set a global standard in trade policy. This would be possible only if open and transparent negotiations become reality and the agreement results in higher worker and citizen protections coupled with better jobs for working people” said Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary.

The ETUC AFL-CIO Declaration of Joint Principles is annexed.