Moving forward with digital and green transitions in commerce

The meeting was the final conference of the EU-funded “Make Twin Transition” organised in Brussels on 5 June 2024.  

During the event, UNI Europa affiliates and key stakeholders, including the European Commission and EuroCommerce, shared their views on current and future changes in the commerce sector. The green and digital transitions, together with reskilling and upskilling, are key trends that will be high on the agenda in the coming years. 

Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, opened the conference: “There is a central role for social dialogue when change is happening so rapidly – and trade unions are best placed to shape it. Some jobs may be lost through these transitions, at the same time we see massive labour shortages. There is an opportunity for a balancing act and for trade unions to have more bargaining power.” 

On the green transition, Angeles Rodriguez Bonillo, CCOO Servicios, presented the progress done in including green transition-related rights in collective agreements across Spain. “The union is now working on a temperature protocol to protect workers in heat, especially when air conditioning is insufficient”. With a focus on the just transition along the international supply chain, Carin Steenbergen, FNV activists working at LIDL, presented an ongoing trade union project on palm oil, involving unions from the Netherlands, Indonesia and Colombia, with African unions to be set to join at a later stage.  

On the digital transition, Swedish unions Handels and Unionen stressed the importance of trade unions in understanding the potential up- and downsides of digitalisation in the commerce sector. “Surveillance and lack of control over how new technologies are used stand out as the most pressing issues for workers”, said Josefin Lundmark from Handels. “So much data of workers is processed every day, but often not properly. We need better, personal protection in the labour market”, highlighted Victoria Kirchhoff from Unionen. She explained her union’s process of creating policies to safeguard workers’ data rights and integrity. 

With the aim of supporting UNI Europa affiliates in facing the transitions and playing a central role, the project produced material and tools, including: 

• a toolkit to help unions take strategic and forward-looking decisions on the two transitions. The toolkit is available in English, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Hungarian. 

• a study, conducted by Syndex, explored possible leverages for unions at European and national level. The full study is available in English, while a shorter version is translated to Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Hungarian. 

• an overview report including the results of in-house desk research, the findings on online surveys by UNI affiliates, as well as experts’ input on developments in the sector. The document is available in English, Swedish, Italian, Hungarian and Dutch.