On 5 February, thousands of trade unionists from across Europe united in Brussels to call for more investment in good industrial jobs.
Shop stewards and union leaders from across Europe voiced their concerns for the steel, automotive, chemicals, shipbuilding and textile industries, among others.
Tens of thousands of job cuts have been announced in recent months.
We cannot stand idly by! We demand action now, to secure the industries – the backbone of Europe’s economy.
Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, says: “Today, Europe faces a choice – either deindustrialise, lose our jobs, our industrial leadership, and leave Europe dependent on imports, at the mercy of decisions made elsewhere in the world, or invest in our jobs using all the tools available to ensure our industrial autonomy and our economic security. Europe cannot be prosperous or peaceful without good industrial jobs. Manufacturing underpins our welfare states and social cohesion.”
Europe has already lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs since 2008 and nearly 100,000 jobs have been lost in the European steel industry alone. The situation is fast getting worse. Over 90,000 job cuts have been announced in the automotive sector since June. Job cuts are stacking up across our industries – in the chemicals, basic metals, textiles and basic materials. These are not just in “old industries”, but also in new, green activities – in wind turbine manufacturing and in battery plants. Eurostat figures show 4.3 million jobs are at risk if action is not taken.
IndustriAll Europe demands that the EU urgently takes emergency measures and invests and act to safeguard workers now, and:
- Implement a European programme, like we had during the pandemic, supporting a moratorium on forced redundancies and lost industrial capacity, with negotiated solutions for every worker and every site
- Stop austerity by allowing clean industrial investment to flourish
- Use public procurement and funds to boost demand
- Offer no blank cheques for business – we want jobs and investment guarantees for every euro of support
- Ensure industrial resilience in global markets by acting to tackle overcapacity, unfair trade and dumping
The European Commission will publish its Clean Industrial Deal on 26 February and Judith Kirton-Darling, stresses that: “This must be a deal between working people, industry and national governments. It must be based on investment in Just Transition, with secure rights – for all workers – to employment security and training. It must include social conditions attached to all public support for industry.
“The Deal must provide the right to affordable, clean energy for all, at home and at work. It must ensure democracy at work through strong collective bargaining and the workers’ voice, with global supply chain guarantees that ensure fair trade, fair purchasing practices and respect for human rights.
“The European project was built on and by industrial workers – by us! It’s time to put working people back at the centre of this project through a clean European investment and an industrial deal with good jobs at its heart. We must take hold of our destiny. We are here today, united to say loudly together – it is not too late, but Europe must invest now in good industrial jobs.”
While the rally continued, an industriAll Europe delegation met with European Commission Executive Vice-Presidents Stéphane Séjourné and Roxana Mînzatu to relay the collective demands for urgent, emergency action with a strong social dimension to the Clean Industrial Deal.