Europe needs a sustainable growth strategy NOW!
In a resolution passed by conference delegates, UNI Europa is demanding a return to the European social model that ensures a social safety net, free education, adequate housing, a living wage and pensions and active labour market policies for quality jobs. The resolution also says that every worker should have the right to join a union and coverage under a collective agreement.
In a lively debate before the vote on the motion, union leader after union leader from across Europe blasted the current policies in Europe that have failed to end the economic crisis.
“The casino is full again and speculation is blooming,” said Frank Bsirske, the president of UNI Europa and chairman of German union ver.di. “The measures taken by the governments to save the banks have caused a debt crisis. These bank losses are being paid for by the workers. Private debt became public debt. What we have now is a political triumph of the financial markets over the real economy – this is the real scandal.”
The unions also voiced their support for the euro. The break-up of the single currency would plunge the European and global economy into yet another crisis, the UNI Europa resolution says. Member states have favoured competition over solidarity for too long. If Greece defaults, Europe risks sinking into a new recession.
Stavros Koukos, president of the Greek bank workers’ union OTOE, said Greece is being used as a laboratory. Workers are being marginalised and they feel trapped.
“The Greeks are the guinea pigs of this antidemocratic experiment,” Koukos said. “Tomorrow it will be the rest of Europe. This remedy for Greece is not working. What we need is a different type of policy.”
The Euro plus pact and the European Central Bank’s current position are direct attacks on trade unions and the freedom of collective bargaining and they call only for austerity measures. The unions vowed to fight back and protect collective bargaining rights.
“We have to mobilize against the neoliberal approach. The EU is blackmailing countries and blackmailing people,” said UNI Europa Acting Regional Secretary Oliver Roethig. “To mobilise means not only doing it in Brussels but also mobilising down to the shop floor. We fight best where we are the strongest.”