European Trade Union Confederation demands work, equality and fairness

European trade unions met in May 2001 in Athens for the European Trade Union Confederation Congress. This meeting is held every four years; this year, the most important issues that were discussed in the congress were economical and employment crisis management.

The main demand from ETUC was to develop European labor (in Finnish, työmarkkina) to the direction which takes into account the employees and the social justice. Even the Europe is in the middle of economical crises, ETUC would like to see the ways of surviving that would combine both the employees (in Finnish, palkansaaja) well being and economical competitiveness.

The ETUC has not welcomed the cutting policy that has been managed by European Commission and practised by European governments. These trade unions believe that the current movement will endanger the wages, public services and workers' rights. The debate has been especially heated related to the fresh initiative that would impose wage and collective bargaining under the watchful eye of European Commission.

Additional to the big discussion related to the economy, employment, and the regulation of markets, the topics included following: labor mobility, sustainable development and social dialogue between employees and employers. The new secretary general, the secretariat and the government for ETUC were elected in the congress also.

ETUC is the highest decision-making body of European trade union movement, which determines the strategy for the employee parties and action plan for the coming years.

Founded in 1973, the ETUC consists of 83 European confederations of workers from 36 countries and 12 sector-specific European Union. The ETUC member organizations are representing around 60 million workers in Europe.

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