Trade union leaders demand stronger collective bargaining

This week’s European collective bargaining conference is the final conference of our two-year project co-funded by the EU. The participants, who are mainly trade union leaders from Europe’s industrial sectors most impacted by the twin green and digital transition, exchanged best practices and discussed with EU policymakers and experts how to ensure quality jobs in this increasingly difficult socio-economic and geopolitical context.

The conference, taking place in the heart of Brussels on 26-27 February, provided participants with a deep dive into the most urgent topics of today:

“For many policymakers, the cost-of-living crisis is over because inflation came down to the European Central Bank levels, or even below this in some Member States. But the food, housing and energy prices tell a different story, as they remain at very high levels or have even increased. Participants have reported how recent wage increases have been overshadowed by the very high prices, resulting in a weakening of demand that affects the economy. This link between demand and wages is often off the policymakers’ radar.

Barthès emphasises: “Yesterday in Antwerp, we spoke a lot about creating a market, but we also need to create the demand, and for this we need strong collective bargaining that protects and increases workers’ purchasing power. We have heard good examples from countries with strong sectoral bargaining, like Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, on how this instrument ensures a fairer redistribution of the wealth created. But collective bargaining can do more than protect wages, it is also an excellent instrument to deliver a Just Transition to a decarbonised economy and a fair digitalisation with worker-friendly AI.

“In its previous mandate, the European Commission has tried to repair the past mistakes and strengthen collective bargaining through the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages and the Council Recommendation on Strengthening Social Dialogue. This political commitment needs to continue. The Clean Industrial Deal has strong elements to protect jobs and mentions the importance of social conditionality on public funding to promote collective bargaining and ensure training rights. But the urgency to act is now and, therefore, the social initiatives need to be frontloaded.”

Consult the conference booklet: EN, DE, FR, ROU, SK, IT, ESP.
See more photos from the conference on Flickr here

Read the outcomes of the project:
See the report on bargaining for quality here 
Webnews and Syndex report: New industriAll Europe study on Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at the Workplace
Webnews: The guide on making training a reality