In an open letter coordinated by UNI Europa and released today, more than 100 world-leading economists, including Isabella Weber, Thomas Piketty and Ann Pettifor, support essential workers' call for EU public procurement rules which improve pay and conditions.
We, economists from around the world, support essential workers’ and their trade unions’ demands for a reform of EU public procurement rules that strengthens collective bargaining and improves working conditions in labour-intensive sectors such as cleaning, security and food services.
The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the critical economic value of outsourced workers in sectors such as cleaning, security, and food services. Yet, despite the essential workers who kept our communities safe, clean and fed during the pandemic’s darkest days, they are frequently perceived by both public and private entities as mere cost factors rather than as crucial investments into society’s health, safety and well-being. A year and a half after the WHO declared the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency, the end of the social emergency that many essential workers face has not yet arrived.
Moreover, many essential workers are migrant workers — mostly women — and face the threat of a growing far right that uses its political power not just to push against progressive economic policies but to further stratify the labour market along lines of nationality, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.
Now, essential workers and their trade unions are mobilising to Brussels to push for a progressive reform of the EU Public Procurement Directives.
Public procurement, or the contracting of private firms by public authorities to deliver goods and services, amounts to two trillion Euros, around 14 per cent of the European Union’s GDP. Millions of workers are employed in the EU through these contracts, and standards created through public procurement influence pay and working conditions throughout the private sector. But current procurement practices — with their dominant focus on the lowest price in tenders — create market conditions that allow bidders to disregard social criteria. The EU Public Procurement Directive’s emphasis on price as the primary award criterion marginalises other critical factors, such as labour rights and fair working conditions, which are essential for sustainable economic growth and good jobs.
As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a revision to public procurement guidelines in her next mandate, we support essential workers and European trade unions in their fight to ensure fair labour standards, strengthen collective bargaining and workers’ voice within these outsourced services. And we will work together with all those progressive forces seeking to improve the livelihoods and working conditions of workers regardless of their status, identity and occupation.
We therefore support the labour movement’s mobilisation to “stop the race to the bottom” in public procurement taking place in Brussels on 1 October 2024. Collective bargaining and union rights are a fundamental pillar of equitable labour markets. It is imperative that its principles are integrated and enforced across all public procurement processes.
Signed,
Thomas Piketty – Professor, EHESS, Paris School of Economics
Isabella Weber – Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jason Hickel – Professor, ICTA-UAB, Visiting Senior Fellow, London School of Economics
Jayati Ghosh – Professor, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Michael Heine – Professor Emeritus of Economics, HTW Berlin, University of Applied Sciences
Ann Pettifor – Director, Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME); Member, Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission
László Andor – Economist, Secretary General, Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and former European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
Michael Reich – Professor of Economics & Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamic, University of California, Berkeley
Benjamin Braun – Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science
Odd N. Hanssen – Economist, United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Giorgos Galanis – Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics, Queen Mary University of London
Maria Nikolaidi – Associate Professor in Economics, University of Greenwich
Cecilia Rikap – Head of Research and Associate Professor in Economics, University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose
Liam Campling – Professor of International Business and Development, Queen Mary University of London
Cédric Durand – Economist, Professor of Political Economy, University of Geneva
Roberto Veneziani – Professor of Economics, Queen Mary University of London
Paul Sweeney – Economist, Former Chief Economist, Irish Congress of Trade Unions
Mike Haynes – Professor of International Political Economy, Business School, University of Wolverhampton
David Adler – Political Economist, Co-General Coordinator, Progressive International
Giorgio Ricchiuti – Professor of Political Economy, University of Florence
Yannis Dafermos – Reader in Economics, SOAS University of London
Heikki Patomäki – Professor of Global Political Economy, University of Helsinki
Giorgos Gouzoulis – Associate Professor in Human Resource Management, Queen Mary University of London
Francisco Louçã – Economist, Politician, Professor of Economics, Lisbon School of Economics and Management
Ourania Dimakou – Lecturer in Economics, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Leonardo Bargigli – Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Florence
Michalis Nikiforos – Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Geneva
Engelbert Stockhammer – Professor of International Political Economy, King’s College London
Oisín Gilmore – Economist, Think Tank for Action on Social Change (TASC)
Karsten Kohler – Associate Professor in Economics, University of Leeds
Trevor Evans – Professor, Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Hansjörg Herr – Professor, Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law
Christoph Scherrer – Associate Fellow, Global Labour University
Romas Lazutka – Professor Emeritus, Vilnius University
Michelle O’Sullivan – Lecturer in Industrial Relations, University of Limerick
Christian R. Proaño – Professor, University of Bamberg
Thomas Sauer – Professor Emeritus of Economics, Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences, Jena
Marcella Corsi – Professor, Sapienza University of Rome
Helena Pérez Niño – International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Alessandra Mezzadri – Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS Anupam Das University of London
Marusca De Castris – Associate Professor of Economic Statistics, Roma Tre University
Caroline Hambloch – Doctor or Economics, Humboldt University Berlin
Susan Newman – Professor of Economics, Open University
Steve Keen – Honorary Professor, University College London
Hielke Van Doorslaer – University of Ghent & Minerva Think Tank
Sara Stevano – Development & Feminist Political Economist, Senior Lecturer in Economics, SOAS University of London
Irene van Staveren – Professor of Pluralist Development Economics, Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Gerry McCartney – Professor of Wellbeing Economy, University of Glasgow
Stephanie Seguino – Professor Emerita of Economics, University of Vermont
Julie Metta – Postdoctoral Researcher in Circular Economy, KULeuven & Tilburg University
Olga Alonso-Villar – Professor of Economics, University of Vigo
Karin Schönpflug – Economics & Researcher, FH Campus Wien
Grace Blakeley – Economist and author
Helena Martínez-Cabrera – Phd Candidate and Research Assistant in Economic Development and Regional Integration, University of Santiago de Compostela
Kanchana N Ruwanpura – Professor at the Human Geography Department, University of Gothenburg
Alexandre Abreu – Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, ISEG, University of Lisbon
Günseli Berik – Professor Emerita, University of Utah
Samanthi J. Gunawardana – Senior Lecturer Gender and Development, School of Social Science, Monash University
Roberto Ruiz Blum – Professor, University of Guayaquil
Vicente Ferreira – Professor, Sapienza University of Rome
Coral del Río Otero – Professor, University of Vigo
Tolga Tören – Research Associate, University of Kassel
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven – Associate Professor in International Development, King’s College London
Níall Glynn – Economist, Founder of the Working Class Economists Group, Researcher at UNITE the Union
Dirk Ehnts – Lecturer, Torrens University, Adelaide
Ozlem Onaran – Professor of Economics, University of Greenwich
Mark Weisbrot – Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Miriam Rehm – Professor of Socio-Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen
Narender Thakur – Professor of Economics, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi
Arthur MacEwan – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston
Eduardo Strachman – Associate Professor of Economics, São Paulo State University
John Miller – Professor of Economics, Wheaton College
Venkatesh Athreya – Economist & Activist, Tamil Nadu
Gustavo Indart – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Toronto
Mary C. King – Emerita Professor of Economics, Portland State University
Mritiunjoy Mohanty – Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal
Julie Cai – Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research
PN (Raja) Junankar – Emeritus Professor, Western Sydney University, Honorary Professor, UNSW Canberra
Alan Aja – Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York
Lara Merling – Senior Research Fellow, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Martial Toniotti – PHD Candidate and Teaching Assistant & Economist, UCLouvain
Eileen Appelbaum – Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Jim Campen – Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston
Marcos Vasconcelos – Associate professor of Economics, Florida State University
Armine Yalnizyan – Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers
Gerald Friedman – Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Garry Sran – Economist and Researcher, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario
Anupam Das – Professor of Economics, Mount Royal University
Audrey Laurin-Lamothe – Associate Professor, Business and Society program, Department of Social Science, York University
Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi – Professor of Economics, Winston-Salem State University, and former Chief Economist, City and County of San Francisco
Michelle Holder – Associate Professor of Economics, John Jay College, City University of New York
Gabor Scheiring – Assistant Professor, Georgetown University Qatar
Patrick L. Mason – Professor Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Brenda Wyss – Professor of Economics, Wheaton College
Louis-Philippe Rochon – Professor of Economics – Laurentian University
Jim Stanford – Director, Centre for Future Work
Mario Seccareccia – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Ottawa
Sem Vandekerckhove – Senior Researcher, HIVA-KU Leuven
Sam de Muijnck – Director, Centre for Economy Studies and Our New Economy
Stefano Filauro – Post-doctoral researcher, Bocconi University
Brent Bleys – Associate Professor of Ecological Economics, Ghent University
Thomas Marois – Professor of Political Economy and Canada Research Chair, McMaster University
Sotiria Theodoropoulou – Head of Unit European Economic, Employment and Social Policies, European Trade Union Institute
13.11.24
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