Speech delivered by ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch at FPRK congress - 11 July 2025, Astana (Kazakhstan)
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Thank you, President, brother Satybaldy,
colleagues, sisters, and brothers.
I bring you warm solidarity greetings from the European Trade Union Confederation.
This is more than a courtesy visit.
I extend a hand of genuine friendship because what we do together matters.
As trade between the EU and Kazakhstan expands, as economic ties deepen, so too must the protection of workers' rights travel with those goods and services.
This is our shared responsibility.
This is our shared opportunity.
We face common challenges that test our resolve: the rising cost of living, rapid technological change, and global economic instability.
No country, no union, no worker can face these pressures alone.
That is precisely why we need mutually supportive action across our trade union movements.
The principle is simple: we will not allow working people to be used against each other.
Whether in my home town of Dublin or your home town Astana, workers deserve dignity, safety, and the protection of collective agreements. The fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, rights of migrant and platform workers, equality between women and men, respect for all workers —these are not individual concerns.
They must be our united struggle.
When Kazakhstan's unions fight for safety standards in mines, they uplift miners across Europe. When the ETUC wins better conditions for platform workers, we send a signal of hope to workers here in Kazakhstan.
This is solidarity in action.
I give you my commitment that the ETUC will continue to press the European Union to embed social dialogue and workers' rights as fundamental components of all agreements with Kazakhstan. A review of the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement is our next opportunity to do this. But I also know from experience that it is direct union-to-union partnerships that build lasting change.
So I propose to continue to discuss, exchange ideas, share strategies and create a future where workers rights, trade union rights are real, visible, and unstoppable.
Let me now turn to the ETUC programme – Three pillars:
1: Building the Trade Union Movement
2: Resisting Deregulation and the Far Right
3: Delivering a project of hope - Quality Jobs
The first pillar, Building the Trade Union Movement, isthe foundation of our power.
We must strengthen the trade unions, organise and put collective bargaining at the front and centre.
We have concluded a Social Dialogue Pact with the European Commission and employers.
We demand real social dialogue – not tokenism or corporate theatre.
We created the Trade Union Renewal Centre and we push for workplace access rights, and social conditionalities because without strong, growing unions, we will not be able to build a future that delivers for people.
The second pillar is to defend what we’ve built.
Every roll back of workers' rights, every deregulation scheme, every assault on our social model will meet the full force of our united movement.
We protect the foundation on which future victories will be built.
We also stand against the rise of aggressive nationalism, which brings division and hate, blaming migrants, LGBTIQ+ and even trade unions for problems created by unjust economies.
Europe is still the best place in the world for workers – better than the US, Russia or China. Europe must not be bullied out of its standards, rights and values.
And our response must be unity, courage, and determination.
The third pillar is to win a Project of Hope, this is our boldest pillar about winning the future we demand.
We are not here to defend the status quo.
We are shaping a new vision: quality union jobs, investment in infrastructures and public services, no blank cheques to corporations. Public funds must deliver decent work and collective bargaining.
We demand a just transition in AI, automation, and the green economy; strong protections for workers; training rights; AI regulation that values human labour; an end to exploitation in subcontracting chains.
This is the agenda Europe needs and maybe also Kazakhstan and Central Asia need.
Three pillars: We unite. We resist. We build.
And this is not a dream—this is our blueprint for victory.
In conclusion, colleagues, we build the EU through social dialogue and legislation. We mobilise against deregulation and against people like Musk, who want to dismantle our system.
But we also act in solidarity with unions and workers in other countries. Especially those seeking closer ties with the EU.
The EU wants stronger partnerships with all five Central Asian countries, on issues like transport connectivity, Global Gateway, Water, energy, digitalisation and critical raw materials.
We want this to benefit all workers, not just the boardroom elite. We must demand a level playing field, due diligence from EU businesses, genuine social partnership in all cooperation.
We believe the FPRK has a key role in promoting democratic trade union values within Central Asia so that together, we shape EU-Central Asia relations around labour rights and social justice.
We must stand united to win a fair deal for workers, build solidarity, resist any attack on our rights.
Let’s carry this message, here in Astana, across Kazakhstan and throughout Europe.
Shoulder by shoulder. Inch by inch. Until we succeed.
Thank you.