On Wednesday 5 February, Commission Vice-Presidents Stéphane Séjourné and Roxana Mînzatu, respectively responsible for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy and Employment, Social Rights and Preparation, met representatives of IndustriALL, Europe’s largest confederation of industrial trade unions.
The aim of the meeting was to try to dispel any fears about the simplification efforts announced by the Commission, particularly as regards respect for social objectives, and to give greater visibility to the sectoral plans intended to halt the decline of sectors such as the automotive, steel and chemicals industries. “We set out our common demands and joint call for an ambitious Clean Industrial Deal for good industrial jobs. There was agreement about the urgency and the need to safeguard industrial capacity and jobs and protect workers. We demanded that there be social conditionalities attached to any support to industry - no blank cheques - to ensure a return to the taxpayer and workforce”, commented General Secretary Judith Kirton – Darling. According to another source, the unions’ main message concerned the cost of energy, which is undermining the competitiveness of European industry. The issue of investment and the social conditionality of this investment, i.e. maintaining jobs, was also addressed. There was also total agreement on the urgent need to maintain Europe’s industrial fabric and know-how.
On 5 February, IndustriALL called for a large-scale mobilisation in the European institutions district in Brussels to “call on the EU to take action in the face of the crisis in our industries, which has seen 100,000 people lose their jobs in recent months in companies such as Audi, Volkswagen, Thyssenkrupp, ArcelorMittal and Northvolt”, as the European Trade Union Confederation pointed out in a press release published the day before.
The organisation reiterated its call for a Just Transition Directive, which would “ensure that no worker or community is left behind by anticipating and managing change, rather than moving from one crisis to another, as is currently the case”.
It should give workers the right to training during working hours, at a time when the EU is not meeting its target of 60% of adults in training, and should guarantee that workers benefit from collective bargaining. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)