On international workers’ day, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is telling European leaders that the needs of working people must be put at the top of the agenda. From tariffs to climate change, Europe needs an industrial policy to protect and create quality jobs in every region and every sector.
Speaking at a May Day event in Paris, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said the hardship caused by austerity policies being pursued at EU and national level is allowing the far-right to grow stronger by “spreading fear” while offering only a dead end for working people.
100,000 jobs lost
The warning comes at a time when European CEOs are paying themselves 110 times more than the average worker, and the failures to invest and plan in European industry has cost more than 100,000 jobs in the last few months.
Despite that, the new European Commission has not committed to any new pro-worker legislation since it took office on December 1. By contrast, it has proposed eight pieces of ‘simplification’ legislation at the behest of employers’ associations and its fiscal rules are pushing member states towards further austerity at a time when investment is needed. Investments must be accompanied by strict social conditionalities, there can be no blank cheques to corporations.
The ETUC says the Commission’s Quality Jobs Package must include investments and pro-worker legislation and be brought forward with the urgency demanded by the situation facing workers across Europe. Currently, the Commission plans only to bring forward “non legislative” proposals in the final quarter of this year.
The ETUC is calling for urgent action:
- A job protection scheme, similar to the ‘SURE’ programme which saved jobs during the pandemic, to prevent irreversible losses in our industrial capacity;
- A Just Transition Directive that ensures companies proactively plan for change, avoiding slash and burn job cuts and ensuring workers have a right to paid reskilling on work time;
- The suspension of the EU’s economic governance rules to allow member states to adopt economic policies to support long-term investments and sustainable growth;
- Controls on price-gouging and profiteering to prevent the profit-driven inflation which saw companies take advantage of global insecurity to cause a cost-of-living crisis for workers;
- A revision of the public procurement directives that ensures only companies which respect collective bargaining rights are eligible to receive contracts.
Speaking in Paris, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“Let us be clear: austerity is a political choice, not an economic necessity. And it is a choice that has caused and is causing enormous damage.
"When governments slash spending under the guise of fiscal responsibility, the real result is increased hardship, unemployment, and insecurity — especially for working people.
"Jobs in the public and private sector are being lost across the EU due to austerity policies. Vital public services are being slashed, wages are being frozen, pensions cut and entire communities are being abandoned.
"In this vacuum, the far right grows stronger — not by offering solutions, but by spreading fear.
"They tell people that migrants are to blame for failing hospitals, job insecurity, and rising rents. This is a lie — a dangerous lie. The true cause is austerity, it is underfunding, privatisation, and a refusal to invest in people. It's price gauging, its union busting, its pay injustice.”
