NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING – SUPPORT THE TRADE UNION MOBILISATIONS IN BRUSSELS AND STRASBOURG
STATEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN LEFT
The European Left expresses its full support for the mobilisations promoted by European trade unions against the risk of social dumping and calls for broad participation in the meetings and rallies taking place on September 24 in Brussels, organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and on October 20 in Strasbourg in front of the European Parliament, organised by CGT, FO, CFDT, CFTC, UNSA and ETUC.
At the centre of these mobilisations is the European legislative proposal known as the “28th regime”, which risks weakening workers’ protections and encouraging a race to the bottom between the social and labour systems of EU Member States.
For the European Left, this is a crucial issue. The European Union cannot continue to dismantle workers’ rights while allowing companies to choose the legal and social framework that is most convenient for reducing wages, rights and protections.
Europe must move in the opposite direction: upward convergence of social and labour rights, stronger collective bargaining, decent wages and effective protection against all forms of social and wage dumping.
The proposal for a 28th regime also comes at a time when European institutions are strongly promoting competitiveness, deregulation and the mobilisation of enormous resources for rearmament. We cannot accept that, while military spending is increasing, workers are once again asked to pay the price of competitiveness through weaker rights and social protection.
More rearmament and fewer rights cannot be Europe’s future.
The European Left therefore stands with the trade union mobilisations in Brussels and Strasbourg, and considers it essential to build a European alliance between political forces, trade unions and social movements to defend social and workers’ rights throughout Europe, and to oppose every attempt to turn the Single Market into an instrument of downward competition. The European Left calls for the necessary unity of trade unions to defend the rights of all European workers.