The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) supports the ‘European Week of Action’ for ‘Fair Transport for Europe’ by the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) – and European and national trade union leaders will join the Brussels demonstration on Wednesday March 27.
“Trade unions are demonstrating for an end to exploitation” said Luca Visentini, ETUC General Secretary “and the social dumping suffered in transport is also taking place in other industries and sectors – in construction, in agriculture, in the service sector and elsewhere. The EU single market should be about spreading prosperity not about driving down wages, not about exploiting workers, not about draining poorer countries of its skilled and unskilled workers. Instead trade unionists call for a fairer Europe for all workers.”
The demonstration, and week of action with 100 more than actions across Europe, are to highlight the trade union demand to ‘Stop Social Dumping’. In transport, a sector in which some 10 million Europeans work, social dumping means:
- Workers sent to other countries often paid less than local employees.
- Dangerously long hours, with employers and governments ignoring the rules about rest time.
- Workers without clear access to healthcare and social security.
- Workers pushed into short term and precarious contracts.
- Constant subcontracting, agency work and fake self-employment.
With European elections coming up transport workers are demanding, amongst other things, a more social Europe with fair, well-enforced rules and a strong right to collective negotiation.
The demonstration gathers on Wednesday 27 March at 12.00 in Boulevard du Roi Albert II, and finishes at Rond Point Schuman.
