Following a presentation which provided an extremely worrying sectoral overview, the participants exchanged country reports that showed how critical the situation is for workers in the whole supply chain and just how urgent a coordinated European plan is for the entire sector. Austerity policies, high interest rates and low salaries undermine domestic demand. Fierce competition from abroad, on both European and global markets, threatens Europe’s position in car manufacturing, whereas the twin digital and green transition is structurally transforming the sector at an unprecedented pace and scale.

Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe, expressed her concerns: “Workers from the European automotive industry feel that they are in high danger. Structural change is going on and we need investment, industrial strategy, and Just Transition, but what we mainly see are business and policy makers focusing on costs and short-term competitiveness. Deregulation, austerity budgets, and relocation to low-cost countries will merely deepen our dependency and the social crisis we are in.

“We do not accept that workers pay for the consequences of bad corporate decisions and of a too shy and too fragmented industrial policy. Europe must act now to stop the job haemorrhage in the car sector!”

Participants also visited a Mercedes plant and heard testimonies from Romanian trade unions outlining their difficulties to ensure genuine social dialogue in many sites. Legislation in Romania undermines the right to strike, and trade union representatives are not protected by law and are often subject to union-busting and harassment. Furthermore, the current industrial relations system in Romania leaves most workers without collective agreements.

“IndustriAll Europe will continue to support its Romanian affiliates in their efforts to improve social dialogue and bring democracy to the workplace. Multinational companies must respect the rights of Romanian workers and stop undermining trade union efforts to organise them”, underlined Judith Kirton-Darling.

At the end of their meeting, the European trade unionists finalised their draft position asking for a European industrial plan, fair international competition, a strengthened Just Transition framework, and a European plan for a sustainable mobility strategy that is affordable to all.