Brussels, 20/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) Congress on Thursday 19 May, trade union delegates from 36 countries adopted the “Athens Manifesto”, the document that will be the roadmap for the organisation for the years 2011-2014. In the manifesto, the ETUC denounces the danger of the “Euro-Plus Pact”, in application for the eurozone and six other economies, a pact that has significant implications especially with regard to salaries. The ETUC affirms that salaries are not the enemy of the economy but rather the driving force, and that the autonomy of social partners in collective and wage negotiations must be honoured.
The ETUC is determined to: - combat the “rising power of the far right and their narrow nationalist allies and to stand for a social Europe”; and it will be active to that end in the next European parliamentary elections; - fight unemployment, rising inequality, precarious work and austerity governance. It will work towards growth and sustainable development, for greater trade union strength and membership, and also develop a joint response to an increasingly integrated European labour market.
The trade union confederation also undertakes to: - fight for a “European New Deal” for workers, against austerity governance, and in favour of a European economic governance that is to the service of the European people and not the markets; - demand a coordinated attack on youth unemployment with guaranteed access to education, training and jobs; - and give priority to the improvement of working conditions of all European workers. The ETUC will also call for effective and stringent regulation of financial markets and rating agencies, an end to tax havens, a tax on financial transactions and the cessation of excessive remuneration, golden handshakes and bonuses to executives. It will also campaign for fundamental social rights to take priority compared to economic freedoms, and therefore guarantee this principle in a protocol on social progress in the European Treaties, in a revised directive on posted workers and in internal market regulation known by the name of Monti II. (G.B./transl.jl)