“Strengthening workers’ rights and employment through collective bargaining, social dialogue and industrial action” is a key priority, the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) heard this afternoon.
Speaking to the EPSU congress in Toulouse, UNSION NEC member Jane Carolan spoke of “the lethal cure of austerity,” saying that, just when “vulnerable people need social safety nets, they are cut back. Just when we need sustainable, well-paid jobs, we face a race to the bottom.”
She said that, in the UK, the “so-called recovery hides the true picture of workers on such low wages that work doesn’t pay; of insecure jobs, short-term, temporary and zero-hour contracts.
“It is a recovery built on the backs of workers,” she told delegates, “fuelling social and economic inequality.”
And she had stern words for the UK government, which she said had “not missed its opportunity” to use “a crisis born in the heart of the financial sector to hold ordinary people to ransom”.
Ms Carolan stressed that the Conservatives have not just been “busy lobbying the European Commission to water down employment rights such as the working time directive” for those in the UK, but for the whole of Europe.
It is vital for unions across the continent to use their “collective power in Europe” to fight the agenda of austerity, she said.
Addressing a motion on local and regional government, fellow UNISON delegate Rena Wood told congress that, since 2010, the UK’s “right-wing government has cut local government spending by over £20bn,” with this “35% reduction in funding” hitting “the poorest areas of the UK the hardest”.
She said that such moves would “fundamentally change the role of local government in the UK – reducing the scale and range of services that it provides and undermining its capacity to deliver services to communities and individuals, regardless of their needs.”
Ms Wood stressed that the government has “targeted these cuts to the poorest parts of the United Kingdom”, and she emphasised the link between the cuts and attacks on democracy, highlighting the government’s “arbitrary, below-inflation limit on the amount by which local authorities can raise local taxes without having to hold a referendum”, which would be a costly exercise.
“Local public services are the support mechanism that preserves the quality of life and social cohesion in communities across the European Union,” she said.
“It is time that we restored the role of local democracy and collectively provided public services so that, once again, the democratic values that previous generations fought for can protect the generations of the future.”
UNISON president Maureen Le Marinel spoke earlier on moving “from austerity to more balanced system of economic and social governance”.
She told delegates that tax cuts were “for the rich and for big business,” and “have seen the poorest citizens hit the hardest.
“We know across Europe food and energy prices are still rising and housing costs are placing demands on future generations that they cannot afford,” she stated.
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