And then it was there – the Green New Deal as proposed by the European Commission. Commission President Von der Leyen introduced it by saying "Our goal is to reconcile the economy with our planet, to reconcile the way we produce, the way we consume with our planet and to make it work with our people
On 27 November, the new European Commission was approved with a comfortable majority and now that President Ursula von der Leyen is up and running we can expect an avalanche of proposals in the next six months. Many of these will be key for public service workers.What will be proposed on fair wages
Ten thousands of health and care workers are taking part in actions and strikes across Europe. And the demands, despite the diversity of countries, are similar. More public funding is needed to provide quality services delivered by workers on decent pay. Years of austerity have left public health
On 24 October, the General Court in Luxembourg ruled against EPSU in its case against the European Commission (T-310/18). EPSU launched the legal action in May last year, challenging the European Commission’s refusal to forward an agreement on information and consultation on issues like
In recent weeks public services workers have mobilised to demand respect for their work and their rights. We have seen several actions and protests of firefighters in France, Lithuania and Spain. The precarious situation of many care workers was the focus of attention on 7 October, the World Day for
While the news media are full of reports on the hearings of potential European Commissioners, workers across Europe are engaged in actions to demand change, higher pay, better conditions and more staff. In Greece trade unions demonstrated against the new conservative government’s proposed labour
Friday starts a week of actions, strikes and other mobilizations to demand from our governments ambitious targets and concrete measures to address climate change. EPSU is calling for support for this movement to send a clear message to the UN summit on 23 September. As many young people say – listen
Yes, that is what has happened. Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, wants to prevent the UK Parliament from having the fullest possible discussion on the no-deal Brexit he pursues. He does not want to allow MPs time to find alternatives or to consider how they can stop him. And just to recall that
The EU-Member States governments carved up the top jobs in the European Union. A narrow majority in the European Parliament agreed with their pick for EU Commission President, the German defense minister Ursula von der Leyen. She becomes the first woman to lead the Commission. Without the votes of
The European Council met on Thursday 20 June bringing together the government leaders. Most attention was focused on the game of musical chairs to decide who got the top jobs. However, they also discussed the strategic agenda 2019-2024. This sets out that the EU should be “building a climate-neutral
Thousands of health and care workers marched through Brussels on 7 May to demand more resources and more staff for the sector. They want more public money to improve services and not to end up in the coffers of shareholders. The Belgian affiliates in this sector mobilized over the kinds of demands
Inspiring actionsPublic service workers have been very active over the last two weeks:- Swiss union VPOD and its allies won a referendum to oppose water privatisation in Zurich. This just shows that if you ask the people then they will tell you that they don’t want their public services run by for
We have recently been working closely with ETUC to influence the negotiations over the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive. The European Council and European Parliament discussing a compromise over the Commission’s proposal. Business interests are lobbying national governments
A healthy and happy New Year to all of you. We hope that the year brings many successes in organising new workers and in improving the pay and conditions of our members and Europe’s workers. This year will be special with several key events. There is the EPSU Congress in June – please make sure you
Protests against the Hungarian Government’s decision to make workers do more overtime continued in Budapest last week. People were angry with the adoption of rules that allow employers to demand workers to do more overtime (up to 10 extra weeks of work!) without adequate compensation. Orban’s party