A demonstration of industrial workers worried about their futures taking place in Brussels this week shows the urgent need for the European Commission to bring forward a Just Transition Directive.
Thousands of workers from across Europe will on Wednesday join an IndustriAll Europe rally to demand EU action over a crisis in our industries which has seen 100,000 people lose their jobs in the last few months at companies like Audi, Volkswagen, Thyssenkrupp, ArcelorMittal and Northvolt.
Ahead of the protest, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is today holding a special conference with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung to make the case for the Commission to include a Just Transition Directive in the Clean Industrial Deal it will launch later this month.
‘Anticipating change’
The directive would ensure that no worker or community is left behind by anticipating and managing change, rather than lurching from one crisis to the next as is currently happening.
It should give workers the right to training during work hours, at a time when the EU is failing to meet its target of 60% of adults being in training, and it should ensure workers benefit from collective bargaining, at a time when many new jobs created by the transition are of lower quality than the ones they are replacing.
The ETUC is calling for that to be coupled with measures to address the immediate crisis, such as a European industrial policy supported by a permanent SURE-style investment mechanism, and a moratorium on compulsory redundancies.
Speaking at the event, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch will say:
“The crisis in Europe’s industries has already cost more than 100,000 jobs in the last few months and it will quickly escalate unless the EU acts on the concerns of the industrial workers coming to demonstrate in Brussels this week.
“Currently the green and digital transitions are failing to deliver quality jobs that workers were promised. Instead, workers face uncertainty, exclusion from decisions affecting their industries, and are forced into taking jobs of a lower quality.
“A Just Transition Directive is essential to ensure workers shape the transition rather than suffer its consequences. It would mean companies proactively plan for change, rather than reacting only when job losses are about to occur, and ensure workers have a right to paid reskilling on work time.
“A successful transition is not just about fairness—it is about Europe's industrial capacity and democracy. Without proper workforce planning and training, Europe risks falling behind competitors like the US and China. And without a Just Transition Directive, the transition will continue to leave workers behind and further embolden the far-right.
“That’s why the Commission must act now to deliver a Just Transition Directive that compels companies to anticipate and manage change in full cooperation with trade unions.”
