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50-day countdown to the European Parliamentary elections starts today

With only 50 days to go to the EP election, UNI Europa is calling on workers of the European Union to prepare to get out to vote to ensure a Europe that defends workers’ rights.

UNI Europa Regional Secretary, Oliver Roethig, commenting on the upcoming European Parliamentary Elections said, “Workers’ votes matter because only by taking part in the elections are we able to influence EU policies and make sure that workers’ interests come first. For that to be achieved we need EU legislation which supports decent working conditions, fair pay and a seat at the bargaining table.”

Citizens in Europe are at the brink of a new future; a future where the ordinary citizens, the workers, are at the centre.

Our working lives are faced with massive and rapid changes. Emerging business models try to sell the idea that the digital era is calling for new non-standard employment relationships. This is not correct. Much of what we see today, including outsourcing, globalisation, zero hour contracts, piecework and bogus self-employment has been around for many years. Many of the so-called “new” ways are simply the same old techniques used to exploit facilitated by new technology.

Countering such techniques and defending workers’ rights has been the raison-d’etre of the trade union movement for more than a century.

The services sectors are the backbone of the European economy, therefore the workers who deliver this prosperity deserve quality jobs where they are treated with dignity and are part of the decisions that affect them.

The EU is a diverse political system, with a range of interests being pursued, therefore it is of the utmost importance to ensure that the politicians representing you in the European Parliament speak and act in favour of your interests as a worker. Use your democratic right to vote in the European Parliament elections to help strengthen your democratic workplace rights.

UNI Europa is preparing for the new European Parliament that will come out of the elections in May 2019 and we have set out clear demands for their term of 2019-2024 in the UNI Europa vision on the European Parliament of 2019-2024. These demands will enable a future of an innovative and quality-oriented services sector, following three main streams:

• A European Partnership to Promote Collective Bargaining, aiming to strengthen and promote sectoral and national collective bargaining throughout the EU
• Policies that put workers, not profit, first and make Europe the champion of the services industries in the new digital world of work
• EU investment focusing on creating quality jobs in the service industries underpinned by a Europe-wide pay rise

UNI Europa further stands together with the rest of the European trade union movement and support the ETUC’s Manifesto for the ETUC Programme “A Fairer Europe for Workers”.

Furthermore, the ETUC urge citizens to vote in their joint statement with European cross-sectoral employers’ organisations.

UNI Europa, represents 7 million workers in over 50 countries in the services sectors that contribute Europe’s economy and labour market in excess of 65% to economic output and employment in the EU.  Deeply committed to the EU succeeding for working people, UNI Europa remains vocal in its demands for a comprehensive and legally binding EU social action programme, promoting collective bargaining and shaping a digitalising services economy in the interests of workers. This is the message UNI Europa will take to the people in the run up to the European Parliamentary elections.

Vote at the European Parliament elections in May 2019! #EP2019

You can read the full text on UNI Europa’s vision on the European Parliament of 2019-2024 here