We are mobilising against austerity!

Today, 13 October 2023, tens of thousands of people will take part in a major demonstration in Paris against EU plans to reintroduce austerity, a move which could force countries to cut 45 billion Euro next year alone. Called by eight French trade unions, UNI Europa together with the whole European trade union movement will join our brothers and sisters on the streets of Paris.

It is one of a number of union mobilisations taking place across Europe as part of the European Trade Union Confederation’s (ETUC) campaign to stop austerity 2.0 and win a fair deal for workers, including pay rises to restore people’s purchasing power.

Fourteen member states will have to make huge cuts, or raise the equivalent amount through tax, from January under the new ‘Stability and Growth Pact’ – unless changes are made.

The current proposal by the Commission to review economic governance and the Growth and Stability Pact risks pushing our national systems towards restrictive policies that hinder the necessary economic and social investments. The European trade union movement is called to mobilise in the fight for solidarity, for European financial instruments that support sustainable growth, employment and for an economy that gives concrete results to workers, for higher wages and quality jobs, for greater social protection, for investments in quality public services that guarantee citizenship rights, for strong collective bargaining and for social dialogue, for the rights of trade unions and workers, for an increase in public investments in industrial conversions, for a fiscal policy just and redistributive.

Specifically, UNI Europa backs the ETUC’s demands:

• No return to austerity
• Yes to investment for better paid, sustainable jobs covered by a collective agreement
• Yes for a fairer economy for all

UNI Europa’s Regional Secretary Oliver Roethig said: “The EU’s response to the 2008 financial crisis has clearly demonstrated that austerity siphons off money from working people to corporations and shareholders. We cannot return to such a failed policy. Instead, the EU should continue down its path of recent years and support workers’ power to collectively bargaining for better wages and conditions. Europe’s workers deserve a fair deal.”