The Executive Committee of the ETF gathered in Vienna for the first real meeting of the ETF’s Executive Committee after the congress in Budapest.
The ETF congress in Budapest was enjoyed very much by all participants. A lot of decisions were taken there. The work program was adopted, 19 motions were passed to Congress. But now the hard work starts. Making those decisions concrete, implementing an integrating them in the day to day work, setting up campaigns, …
A lot of work on the plate of the General Secretary, the secretariat and the sections. But also for all of us. Affiliates take the decisions at our congress, but are also responsible to execute them giving the support that is needed to the team to make it real. So we will need all of you to work on the objectives we decided on.
Let’s face it, the situation for us, the trade unions is not easy for the moment. We are still not completely out of the covid crisis, and we are facing already another deep crisis. The war in Ukraine, but also speculation flames the inflation. The energy prices we all have to pay are mountain high, shopping in the supermarket is extremely expensive, …
For the people we represent, it becomes more and more difficult to pay the bills at the end of the month. That is why a lot of us, trade unions are in “action modus”. It’s been quite a “hot” fall this year with strikes in several countries. Strikes of transport workers who are sick and tired of not receiving fair pay and having to work in indecent working conditions.
Transport workers still having to cope with the refusal of employers and workers’ federations denying them decent pay rises and improved working conditions. Although the employers’ organisations themselves predict a big shortage of workers in different sectors in the near future. IRU for example is predicting that the shortage of truck drivers will triple between now and 2026.
And sure, employers will tell us that competition is hard, and that they have no margins for pay rise. Well, the big electricity provider in Belgium, Engie is making millions because of the energy crises, and their shareholders in Paris are cashing big profits.
And Jef Bezos sends rockets in space, while the Amazon staff is exploited and denied fundamental rights.
So it is not more than normal that in the meanwhile in several countries like France, the United Kingdom, Holland, Belgium there are general or sector linked strike actions. And also here in Austria the rail workers will be on strike this week because of the lack of investments in rail, for decent jobs, pay, decent conditions and decent rail services. We will organise a solidarity action during the coming days with our Austrian friends of rail that are on strike.
Different comrades were also present during the ITUC congress in Melbourne last week. Some of us in the ITF delegation, others in their national delegation.
I would like to mention the election of the new General Secretary for ITUC, Luca Visentini, who was elected with a majority of more than 70 %. We congratulated him on behalf of ETF, but we hope that he will be able to bring new dynamics in the organisation and to make it even more relevant for the affiliates.
This means of course that Esther Lynch will take over his tasks as General Secretary of ETUC until the elections of a new secretariat within ETUC in May of next year. We all know her, we were able to nominate her, and we know that she will be in big support of ETF.
But when I mention ETUC and ITUC I want to emphasise that the expectations we have of the two organisations are not fulfilled as they should be. How come that we have such a big challenge in Europe on inflation and energy prices that are unpayable, with a late or even non-reaction of the commission and the council, without a mobilisation on a European scale by the ETUC?
How come the ETUC is not proposing a mobilisation on a European level to give a clear and strong signal to Europe that we want them to do more and better when it comes on protecting workers purchasing power, salaries and working conditions? I know that Livia Spera, ETF’s General Secretary, with some other European federations and national unions, did plead for it, but just up to now ETUC is not able to put a mobilisation proposal on the table. Since it is my conviction that we will not be able to solve the problems in the different countries, without European coordination, I think we need to continue to insist and asking for European action by ETUC.
