Today in Brussels, industriAll Europe attended the strategic dialogue, held by the European Commission, on the future of the chemicals industry.
The head of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has told the European Commission that the time for talks over growing redundancies is over and they must take urgent action to protect and create quality jobs.
At a ‘strategic dialogue’ held by the European Commission in Brussels today on the future of the chemicals industry, Esther Lynch told Commissioners they have not done enough to address the crisis costing an average of 500 jobs a day in manufacturing and called for them to bring forward dedicated European industrial strategy.
As the “industry of industries,” the sector faces growing pressure from US and Chinese competition, high energy costs, weak management decisions, and the automotive crisis. The Chemical Industrial Package must deliver investment plans to revitalize the sector, protect strategic molecule production, and preserve quality jobs in Europe.
A million jobs
The EU lost almost a million manufacturing jobs, including in the chemicals sector, between 2019 and 2023. Manufacturing is now among the hardest hit by a threefold increase in the number of jobs being lost due to company restructuring in the first five months of 2025 compared to the same period in 2022. The chemical sector is seeing job losses across the supply chain, with closures at ExxonMobil and job reductions schemes at BASF, a crisis in the fertilizer sector (Yara Group and Grupa Azoty), and layoffs in pharmaceuticals.
The Purchasing Manager Index shows that, unlike in previous years, these losses are no longer being offset with the creation of jobs – even of lower quality- in the service industry. The impact of US tariffs on chemical products, and renewed austerity caused by the EU’s fiscal rules means the outlook for employment in Europe risks becoming even worse.
Despite that, the Commission is currently prioritising a deregulation agenda which could make it even easier for firms to lay off workers, rather than the support measures that industrial workers called for when they demonstrated in Brussels in February.
At today’s meeting, the ETUC called on the European Commission to bring forward:
- 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.
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“Every day in Europe, around 500 skilled manufacturing workers are losing their livelihoods with no alternative employment prospect. That is a crisis that requires European action but so far the European Commission has failed to take measures that match the urgency of the situation
“The Commission is not only failing to take action to help the situation, but its austerity rules are choking investment and its current focus on deregulation risks making it even easier for large companies to lay off workers during temporary slumps.
“Every single Commissioner has been made responsible for delivering this deregulation agenda. But the millions of working people worried about their futures want to see every Commissioner focused on protecting their jobs and supporting European industries.Trade unions always welcome real social dialogue but the time for talking has long passed. The Commission need to bring forward a European industrial plan to protect and create new quality jobs by investing in our industries.”
Michael Vassiliadis, industriAll Europe’s president called on the European Commission to bring forward:
- A convincing Chemical Industrial Package, which must deliver a plan of investments to revitalize the industry, defend the production of strategical molecules and preserve good quality jobs in the continent.
- A robust and certain regulatory framework is needed—one that upholds environmental and labour standards, strengthens the implementation of REACH and its risk-based approach, allocates more resources to ECHA’s registration process, and ensures greater enforcement and inspections to guarantee that workplaces and workers are properly prepared for chemical exposure.
IndustriAll Europe General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling said:
“The lack of a defined EU industrial policy, along with management decisions to divest from Europe and prioritize dividend payouts, has left the chemical industry in a fragile position to compete with other regions of the world. The situation is further exacerbated by the fact that chemical value chains are deeply interconnected with all other industrial sectors.
“The chemical industry must be recognized as strategic, which is why we call for an ambitious Critical Chemicals Act. These investments should be tied to specific social conditionalities to ensure the creation of quality jobs, strong training opportunities to support workers through the transition, and an increase in both the number and quality of apprenticeships. Our highly qualified and resilient people is our competitive advantage.”