European elections: workers demand social progress

The results from last week’s elections to the European Parliament are in. The bad news is that in the EU’s two biggest economies in particular, France and Germany, the far right made significant gains. This also bodes ill for national elections in these countries. The good news, however, is that there will still be a democratic majority in the European Parliament. The initial results show that the far right did not overtake the social and progressive faction of the European Parliament, nor did the far right become the largest or second largest political group.

With these results there is no need, or excuse, for backroom deals with any part of the anti-worker far-right. But this is not enough. If European leaders really want to fight back, they need to abandon the failed free-market approach and build a truly social Europe that works for everyone by strengthening collective bargaining.

The European Union has set a target of 80% collective bargaining coverage across all EU member states. Now, The democratic majority has a responsibility to deliver on it, creating quality jobs, raising living standards and providing security for workers. As outlined in UNI Europa’s Manifesto “Towards a European Union That Puts Workers First”, during the next mandate policymakers should urgently:

• Stop social dumping by revising EU public procurement law to allow, and indeed, demand that all levels of government – from municipalities to the European institutions – prioritise contracts with companies engaging in collective bargaining.
• Respect workers’ say by building a legislative and political framework that increases collective bargaining coverage and union density in the services sectors, and that promotes multi-employer/sectoral collective bargaining.
• Put an end to injustice by launching an EU-wide coordinated approach to proper enforcement and prosecution of managers for wage theft and union-busting.

Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary, said: “These elections show that there is still time to turn the tide and deliver policies that empower workers. This means standing by and emancipating workers to have a real say and more pay at their workplace – through strengthening collective bargaining, changing the EU public procurement rules and outlawing wage theft and union-busting.”