Athenes, 19/05/2011
With the approval of the Athens manifesto the ETUC asserts that wages are not the enemy of the economy but its motor and that the autonomy of social partners in collective bargaining must be respected, denouncing the danger of the “Euro Plus pact”.
The ETUC will fight for a European New Deal for workers against austerity governance and for a European economic governance that serves the interests of the European people and not the markets, for a coordinated plan against youth unemployment and to prioritise the improvement of working conditions of all European workers.
The ETUC commits to demand effective and stringent regulation of financial markets and ratings agencies and to campaign and claim that fundamental social rights take precedence over economic freedoms and consequently enshrine this principle in a Social Progress Protocol in European treaties, in a revised Posted Workers Directive and in internal market regulation known as “Monti II”.
An action day has been approved to promote the Manifesto’s aims.