Speech OPZZ 35th Anniversary Gala Luca Visentini   A warm thank you for inviting me to this important anniversary in the history of OPZZ. I take this opportunity to extend to you the congratulations of the whole ETUC. OPZZ is an important member of the ETUC, and the European movement has benefited enormously from the input of your trade union. Since Poland joined the European Union, you have made sure that the voice of workers from Central and Eastern European member states was well heard in the trade union movement.

Responding to the European Parliament’s approval for the new European Commission, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “The process of forming the new Commission has been beset by problems from the moment that lead candidates in the European elections were disregarded as potential presidents. "Now the Commission has finally got over the line, it’s time to get on with delivering the big promises it has made for its first 100 days.

The European Commission today presented its opinion on the draft budgets of Eurozone countries. Please find below a comment from European Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Luca Visentini: 

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomes the decision by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to phase out lending to fossil fuel projects – and stresses that affected workers and regions must be properly supported. The board of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that the institution will phase out lending for almost all fossil-fuel projects after 2021.

Dear Presidents, Ministers, Colleagues from the social partners. I do not like to be a pessimist, but the situation is grim. The global and European economic forecasts have been revised downwards. Inflation is still very low, despite all the efforts made by the ECB. We had finally started to have some breathing space as we were recovering from the 2008/2012 crisis. Now the growth prospects are reported to be weaker than last year. Also looking at the employment figures and claiming all is positive would be misleading.

Commenting on today's European Commission Autumn Economic Forecast, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “The Commission’s economic forecast shows Europe rests on the edge of another recession despite the fact that workers’ living standards still haven’t recovered from the last financial crisis. Even the good overall employment rate is based on a rise in precarious work.

Dear Readers, We have just published the October 2019 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

Parents in seven EU member states will begin benefiting from new rights to paid leave if national governments properly implement the work-life balance directive, a new ETUC analysis shows. Fathers in Italy, Croatia and Slovakia are set to receive paid paternity leave around the birth of a child for the first time ever under the directive adopted by the European Council in June. The legislation fought for by the ETUC will also at least double the length of paid paternity leave in the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania.

Compulsory gender pay reporting backed up by fines must be among the “binding pay transparency measures” promised by Ursula Von Der Leyen if they are to have a real impact. The European Commission President-Designate has pledged to bring forward measures to tackle the EU’s 16% gender pay gap within the first 100 days of her mandate. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomes the commitment and is calling on her to introduce policies which have a chance of delivering real change in the public and private sectors.

Today the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in the case brought by the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) against the refusal of the European Commission to put forward their Social Partner Agreement for adoption as a European Directive (Judgment T-310/18, EPSU and Goudriaan v Commission). The court judgement will be a blow to those 9.8 million government workers who would have benefited from much needed rights to information and consultation with their employer.

The Spanish Government is proposing to reduce the protection for workers against cancer-causing substances, and allagedly boosting the competitiveness of companies, on the pretext of transposing the revised EU Directive (2004/37/EC) on carcinogens or mutagens at work. The cancer-causing substances, for which the Spanish caretaker government is proposing to increase the exposure limits, are crystalline silica, acrylamide and bromo-ethylene. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is urging the Spanish government to withdraw its proposals.

“The Double Standard at Work: European Corporate Investment and Workers’ Rights in the American South” cites key case studies to reveal practices in the U.S. South European corporations are two-faced when it comes to respecting working people’s freedom of association and workers’ rights, argues a new report by the AFL-CIO and supported by the European Trade Union Confederation.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) believes there is no Brexit that will benefit working people. In the circumstances, we welcome the European Union’s efforts to stop no-deal, guarantee the Good Friday Agreement and avoid a hard border in Ireland.   However, the ETUC is concerned that the deal appears to have further watered down already weak commitments to workers’ rights, although further scrutiny is essential.