ETUC Executive Committee position on Ukraine

(18 March 2022) Europe’s trade union leaders had a long discussion on the war started by Russia in Ukraine. Working class solidarity with workers and people in Ukraine is tremendous. The unions discussed the many ways in which they are providing support including for the many millions of refugees in the Ukraine and those that were forced to flee to the EU.  Leaders discussed the political situation, the impact of the war and sanctions on workers and including on workers in Russia. We demand regulation of energy prices and programmes to support the sectors that have been impacted. The ETUC will consider a longer term programme on how we rebuild the European continent and what is needed for this. For the full resolution.

The Executive Committee adopted positions on:

• Social Dialogue in light of the upcoming discussions with the European Commission. These discussions include our demands for clarity and transparency regarding the role of the European Commission when the employers and trade unions bring an agreement to the Council for a decision to implement this through ergo omnes and legislation. This situation arose after the rulings of the European Court of Justice in the case of EPSU vs the European Commission. It is urgent as the European employers and trade unions have agreed to start negotiations on Telework with the intention of making this a legally binding agreement through a Directive. See the ETUC Resolution on an updated social progress protocol
• Platform workers and what is needed to protect their jobs and rights.
• Health and Safety including our position on amendments to the Machinery Directive and the role of Artificial Intelligence, and on vaccination schemes
• Minimum level of Taxation for multinationals; on preventing the use of shell entities and on next generation of own resources for the EU budget
• On Social Imbalance Procedure in the EU – to counter balance the economic imbalance procedures  and to create room for investments in social protection for example.
• On the European Year of Youth – empowering young workers through actions.
• Social Taxonomy for sustainable investment
• Equipping workers with skills for the Green transition
• The analysis of the Commission proposal on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence

The position on a workers’ centre trade policy was postponed and our discussions on fighting the far-right will continue.

• ETUC Resolution on Ukraine (EN)  (FR)

• ETUC Resolution on Ukraine (UA)

• ETUC Resolution on Ukraine (RU)