We call on Europe’s leaders and employers to live up to their political and social responsibilities and do everything that is required to avoid a deep recession and protect workers jobs across Europe.
The COVID-19 crisis has had a profound impact on industriAll Europe and its member organisations. Faced with an unprecedented health crisis and the worst economic and social crisis since the nineteen thirties, we had to shift priorities, refocus our work and adapt our ways of working.
Nonetheless, we have maintained our capacity to work and act together, to negotiate collective agreements, to exert influence on political decisions, to strike when workers had to continue working in unsafe conditions.
In its meeting today, industriAll Europe’s Executive Committee adopted a statement that details our positions and demand with regard to workers’ health and safety, workers’ income and jobs, the future of our industries and the need for a united European approach to tackle the crisis.
The statement is action-oriented, and aims to address the various dimensions of the crisis and pandemic affecting our members and sectors in a holistic manner:
- the impact on public health and health and safety at work
- the impact on incomes and purchasing power
- the impact on jobs and anticipating forthcoming restructuring
- the impact on industries and the need for a revitalised industrial policy
- fundamentally, the impact on European unity and solidarity
This unprecedented crisis demands urgent recovery and solidarity measures to allow the EU as a whole to endure and a mass social crisis across Europe to be averted. IndustriAll Europe therefore continues to call for ambitious investment measures instead of reverting to austerity, a European recovery that is based on a Just Transition, a strong industrial policy strategy as well as worker involvement and social dialogue at all levels. Together, we will fight for a strong, sustainable, smart, and resilient industrial base and a fair and collective recovery with good jobs for all European industrial workers.
Luc Triangle, industriAll Europe’s General Secretary:
“The statement issued by the Executive Committee today provides a strong basis for industriAll Europe and its affiliates to go forward and influence the key decisions to be taken that are needed to emerge from the crisis. We call on Europe’s leaders and employers to live up to their political and social responsibilities and do everything that is required to avoid a deep recession and protect workers jobs across Europe.”
Statement on industriAll Europe’s position on COVID-19: EN, FR, DE
Contact: Andrea Husen-Bradley, press and communication