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collective bargaining
To Stop the Rise of the Far Right, the EU Must Tackle Economic Insecurity
The results of the European Parliament elections actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Jun 10, 2024
“Business as usual” cannot continue—that much is clear from the results of the European elections.
Democratic forces still have a clear majority in the European Parliament. The majority of people who came out voted for a democratic Europe. So there is no need—still less excuse—for backroom deals with any part of the far right. But the rise in support for anti-democratic, anti-worker parties demands a response.
Some politicians, panicked, will try to go even further in imitating the far right, in style and substance. Trade unions, supported by the data, are clear that this tactic will backfire. The obsessions of the far right are far from the main concerns of European citizens, whose priorities are quality jobs and ending poverty.
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers.
The Hans-Böckler-Stiftung recently conducted a survey of workers in 10 European Union member states. It found that workers who were dissatisfied with their working conditions and pay and who had little say in their job were more likely to have negative attitudes towards democracy and to be more vulnerable to right-wing narratives about “migrants.”
Parties must not normalise the far right’s talking points. Wrong in principle and self-defeating in practice, this strategy—adopted by many during the election campaign—was a failure. It would compound the error to double down on it.
Instead, these results must be the wake-up call that stops Europe sleepwalking toward disaster. All democratic parties must use their combined majority to deliver on the priorities of hard-working people. It is time to stop trying to treat the symptoms and finally address the real cause of the malaise—economic insecurity.
A Project of Hope
The E.U. must urgently press forward on a European project of hope that delivers security and safety to workers. That includes quality jobs in all occupations and regions, real improvement in pay and working conditions, enhanced public services, affordable housing, and social justice.
People want an E.U. that fights against poverty and creates quality jobs—too many lack the most basic elements of a decent life. Renewed austerity would take us in the opposite direction and add to anger in communities across Europe.
Rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality.
Uncertainty and insecurity are fuelling the “backlash” against the European Green Deal. Tackling the climate crisis is non-negotiable: There are no jobs on a dead planet. But we must make the transition to a green economy in a way that does not leave workers and their communities behind.
By 2030, around 160,000 jobs in coal could be lost across Central and Eastern Europe, with up to triple that number in the supply chain. Neither the funding nor the legislation is in place to ensure that new opportunities are available for those workers.
It is no wonder there is fear. But rather than abandoning the Green Deal, we should add a lot of red to it, to ensure that the long-promised just transition becomes a genuine reality. We need a dedicated just-transition directive that guarantees workers will benefit from new, quality, green jobs in their region the moment or before old jobs are phased out.
Public Investment
That will require increased public investment in every member state—which means the E.U. needs to have a new investment fund ready to go when the Recovery and Resilience Facility ends in 2026. The incoming European Commission, if it is sensible, will also show a high degree of flexibility over the E.U.’s new fiscal rules, to avoid a return to austerity.
Equally, bringing stability to people’s lives has nothing to do with violating human rights through migration deals with repressive regimes. It means ensuring that every individual has a secure job with an income they can rely on, with enough to provide for themselves and their families—not simply scraping by, week to week, bill to bill. It means ensuring that member states guarantee that workers can unionise and have a real say at work.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people.
The last commission made a positive start by recognising that the destruction of collective bargaining during austerity had supercharged insecurity, taking steps to reverse that trend through the minimum-wages directive. The platform-work directive was also a recognition of the negative consequences of growing precarity.
We now need measures of a scale and urgency that matches these election results and the challenges faced by workers. Let’s give working people back more control over their lives by ramping up their ability to bargain collectively. There should be no more public money for companies which do not act in the public interest by paying union wages and reinvesting profits to create jobs and raise productivity—instead siphoning them off in excess bonuses and dividends.
Europe will never be able to compete in the world on the basis of the lowest cost. We need an active industrial policy that shares the benefits of green growth at home and sees our reputation for high standards as a comparative advantage, rather than a drag on “competitiveness.”
Social Progress
During the election campaign, I was repeatedly asked whether results such as these would mean it would be more difficult to achieve social progress in the coming term. These results actually make progress more urgent than ever—and there is still a democratic majority in place to deliver it.
Those in power should not however take it for granted that workers’ support for Europe will continue if they do not take this opportunity to change it, delivering on the real priorities of working people. To paraphrase the former European Commission President Jacques Delors, our aim must be to ensure that—before the next European elections—the person in the street can enjoy the daily experience of a tangible social Europe.
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Biden Rule Mandates Collective Bargaining for Major Federal Building Projects
"The labor movement is putting high-wage, high-road labor standards into action and workers are rebuilding America, union strong," said the AFL-CIO.
Dec 18, 2023
About 200,000 U.S. construction workers will benefit from new collective bargaining requirements announced by President Joe Biden and Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su on Monday, as the administration unveiled a final rule implementing an executive order that was introduced last year.
Under the new rule, federal agencies will be required to enact project labor agreements (PLAs) for large-scale federal construction projects that cost $35 million or more.
The General Services Administration (GSA) officially has amended federal regulations under Executive Order 14063, and the new rule will go into effect 30 days from this coming Friday, when it is set to be published in the Federal Register.
With the PLA requirement in place, contractors, subcontractors, and unions will have to negotiate set terms for project construction, giving nearly 200,000 construction workers collectively bargained wages, benefits, and safety protections, regardless of their union membership status.
"In President Biden's America," said Su on Monday, "'union' is not a bad word. It's the reason America is strong."
Biden said that under the new rule, projects funded by his Investing in America jobs plan "will move faster and without delays."
"Workers will have the security and peace of mind that collectively bargained wages and benefits bring, better pathways to good-paying jobs, and stronger health and safety protections," said the president.
The announcement was made Monday at the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building in Cleveland, Ohio, where the GSA is working to modernize the building to ensure veterans can receive support services.
"Contractors and unions at this site have entered into a PLA that helps the parties address the unique coordination challenges posed by large projects," said the White House in a fact sheet about the new rule. "The PLA covering the Celebrezze Federal Building project also supports equitable workforce development pathways into the trades and registered apprenticeship."
Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, said the new rule "is welcome news for the responsible use of taxpayer dollars" and the protection of workers who help complete federal projects.
"Project labor agreements ensure that large-scale projects are completed on time, with the highest quality, efficiency, and safety," said McGarvey. "Time and again, PLAs have proven to address labor supply issues, prevent work stoppages, protect workers' classification, strengthen health and safety standards, and achieve substantial, direct cost savings by standardizing contract terms for highly skilled craft workers."
"PLAs also boost community economies through local hiring goals and recruitment of workers into apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship job training programs," McGarvey added, "that uplift historically marginalized communities into middle-class construction careers."
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97% of 'Clearly Fed Up' UAW Big Three Autoworkers Approve Strike
"Our message to the Big Three is simple: Record profits mean record contracts," said UAW president Shawn Fain.
Aug 25, 2023
Members of the United Auto Workers at General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike should negotiations for a new contract fail, the union announced Friday.
With some votes still left to be tallied, UAW said 97% of its participating members at the so-called Big Three automakers approved a strike if a deal can't be reached with management before the workers' current contract expires on September 14.
"Our union's membership is clearly fed up with living paycheck-to-paycheck while the corporate elite and billionaire class continue to make out like bandits," Shawn Fain, UAW's new president, said in a statement Friday. "The Big Three have been breaking the bank while we have been breaking our backs."
UAW is demanding a 40% pay raise for workers at the three automakers; the elimination of tiered wages and benefits; re-establishment of cost-of-living allowances, defined benefit pensions, and retiree healthcare; the right to strike over plant closures; increases in current retiree benefits; and more paid time off.
"Our members' expectations are high because Big Three profits are so high. The Big Three made a combined $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year," said Fain. "That's on top of the quarter-trillion dollars in North American profits they made over the last decade. While Big Three executives and shareholders got rich, UAW members got left behind. Our message to the Big Three is simple: Record profits mean record contracts."
Vincent Tooles, a worker at a Stellantis factory in Warren, Michigan, earns $20.60 per hour assembling Jeep Wagoneers. Tooles toldThe Washington Post he makes less hourly than his father did at the same company 20 years ago.
"What I would like to see change is just an increase in pay," he said. "I feel like we're the only industry probably in the country that has went down in pay over the last 30 years."
UAW said 147,000 members took part in the vote—46,000 at GM, 57,000 at Ford, and 44,000 at Stellantis, the parent company of 16 brands including Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram in the United States.
The UAW strike vote follows this week's ratification by an overwhelming majority of UPS Teamsters of a new contract—hailed by some as "historic" and slammed as a "sellout" by others—averting a potentially crippling strike. The UAW vote also comes as 85,000 Kaiser Permanente hospital and clinic workers are set to start voting Saturday on authorization of what could be the biggest healthcare strike in U.S. history over what advocates say are unfair labor practices.
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