On Wednesday, February 16, an online meeting of the WFTU TUI PS - Europe was
held on the topic:
"Evaluation
of the situation in Europe, the duties and the action plan of the trade union
movement against the attack of Government- Capital - EU
Organizations from 9 countries participated in the meeting from Greece -
Cyprus - Austria - Italy - Czech Republic - Denmark - Basque Country - Sweden
and Portugal and the General Secretary, cr. Zola, also participated and
addressed a speech.
The Coordinator of Europe stressed in his speech: " the need for the organization of the struggle and the coiling of
more trade unions against the generalized attack of governments and capital,
how they are evolving in each country, how under the pretext of the pandemic
they attack labor rights and conquests, how the anti-popular policy as a whole
unfolds against workers of Europe."
Rich interventions and discussions were followed by
the trade unionists who helped the coordinator to summarize at the end: "an important experience came to our
meeting today, an experience that strengthens us and makes us more militant.
We, as TUI PS, consider very important the trade unions of Europe to be able to
meet, discuss and coordinate our action against the attack of capital, the E.U.
and governments. To bring new trade unions next to us. Each union must timely
plan and organize initiatives to make known to the entire working class the WFTU
congress, that has carried out from the previous congress a very important
path, always on the side of workers around the world."
A mid-term congress of the TUI PS will take place on
March.
RESOLUTION
SOLIDARITY WITH LARCO WORKERS against 1200 layoffs
The militant unions who sign this resolution we express our solidarity with The workers of LARCO denouncing the Greek Government’s plans to lay off 1200 workers and evict 1000 families from their homes, which are based in the factory.
The Greek Governments have for years undermined the
condition of the LARCO Factory, one of the 5 biggest nickel producers
globally, so as to be able to privatize the factory without the workers and
their rights.
we stand on LARCO
WORKERS side so as to stop the criminal act of the Government
against the workers.
Speech of Coordinator, at the meeting of trade unions of public sector of Europe
Wednesday, February
16, 2022
Dear fellow militants
We have the pleasure and the honor to thank the
comrades who are with us online today.
An attempt was made to address and meet online with
all the militant trade unions and organizations of Europe that we have a
contact and an action in the past years, in order to lay the foundations for
how we will plan our next initiatives, together, to strengthen the militant pole
of unions opposed to the policies and plans of monopolies, the EU and bourgeois
governments.
The main topic of our meeting today is the
organization of the struggle against the generalized attack of governments and
capital, how they are evolving in each country, how under the pretext of the
pandemic they attack labor rights and conquests, how the anti-popular policy as
a whole unfolds against workers of Europe.
We are just before the 18th congress of the WFTU, that
will take place on March 6-7-8, in Rome - Italy. It is a very important
congress for the working class, since the WFTU brings together in its ranks
unions from 130 countries around the world with 105 million members. Each union
must timely plan and organize initiatives to make known to the entire working
class the WFTU congress that has carried out from the previous congress a very
important path, always on the side of workers around the world.
That is why, colleagues, we consider very important to
see and discuss what we need to do to strengthen our TUI, the WFTU, the
coordination of the militant trade unions.
All this time, there have been major struggles across
Europe against the anti-popular policies of governments, struggles to defend
peoples' health, for protective measures at workplaces, to defend the public
health system, for recruitment of doctors and nurses, to defend income, wage
increases, against the privatization of public organizations, against the
dismissals, struggles against the abolition of fixed working time, securing and
protecting trade union rights, against the intensity
of the exploitation of workers. These struggles have brought us closer to new
workers.
In these struggles, the unions that played the leading
part were the militant trade unions affiliated to the WFTU in Europe from
Greece, Italy, France, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal from all European countries.
While there was great solidarity from the militant unions and the WFTU to these
struggles.
All these struggles, taking into account the conditions
in which they were taking place due to the pandemic, were directed against the
governments, the business groups, but also against the trade union members of
ITUC-ETUC, that are fully submissive to the wishes of the employers and the
governments. At the same time, it is the duty of the militant unions to expose
those trade union forces that serve the interests of the employers and the
imperialists within the workers.
The pandemic is spreading across Europe. Protection
measures for workers are not taken, the public health system is not
strengthened and tracking and health monitoring are not upgraded, substantial
interventions in the over-transmission rings are not made, such as work places,
Public transport and schools. All the governments of the European Union don't
want to harm the interests and profits of capital and they adapt the health
protocols even more to the needs of
business groups, leaving the people exposed.
This
is a conscious political choice by all governments, and the greek one, and not
negligence. If anything is
confirmed by any development of the pandemic, is that the protection of the
health of people cannot be found in the commercialized Health system and in the
protocols supporting capitalist profitability. Only the people can save the
people, fighting for measures of effective protection from the pandemic and
targeting the real opponent, the system that puts our needs on the scales of
"cost - benefit" in favor of the capital.
The message to workers by the governments is clear:
"You will work even if you are sick" since coronavirus patients will
telework for up to five days and then they will return to work. This is a
regulation that directly questions the right to sick leave for workers who are sick.
Finding the scope of the coronavirus today, and even in pandemic conditions,
with tens of thousands of cases and deaths, it does not need much imagination
for how it will be utilized in the future.
The problems faced by workers on every continent, in
almost every country as a result of the anti-labor attack are similar also in
Europe. That is, we live in conditions where the effort of governments to
proceed with privatization of key public sectors is intensified, they are
replacing workers in public sector with contract workers, with miserable
working conditions and rights, dismissals and wage cuts are increasing as in
Greece and other European countries, while at the same time the attack on trade
unions, against trade union rights and freedoms is escalating. This attack is
escalating in all the countries of the European Union, by all the governments.
They want the workers to work from morning till night every
day of the week and they attack the trade union action with arrests of trade
unionists. Privatizations in all EU countries is on the agenda, utilizing also the
pandemic.
Organizations that are called trade unions, but are in
fact mechanisms of the multinationals and capital, such as the anti-workers and
anti-communist European Trade Union Confederation-ETUC/CES and the ITUC/CSI. It
is characteristic that the ETUC is funded by the European Union and intervenes
in trade unions to promote a false image of the European Union as democratic and
in favor of the workers. At the same time across Europe EU-Governments and
Employers are banning strikes, persecuting trade unions and trade unionists,
sacrificing workers' lives for the profits of multinationals. With money they
buy trade unionists, undermine struggles, cultivate inaction, frustration and
fatalism. They seek to hit mass collective action.
A special issue that we must highlight is the
consequences of imperialist rivalries, the evolution of imperialist peace into
an imperialist war, with interventions, coups, embargoes, etc. where peoples
accept the consequences of imperialist rivalries over oil, raw materials,
transportation routes, and spheres of influence. Murdering interventions are
causing millions of refugees.
In Ukraine, the US-NATO-EU confrontation with Russia
is a breath away from the military conflict. In such a case Greece will
contribute with the Souda base, but also with the infrastructure in Alexandroupolis!
From Souda, where Black Sea surveillance warplanes take off, to
Alexandroupolis, the main US-NATO transit hub in the Balkans and Southeast
Europe. Greece is actively participating in the NATO plan encirclement of
Russia, which has led to the current escalation of tension. Developments call
for vigilance, mobilization, action by all the militant trade unions in Europe.
We
who are participating in this meeting today can conclude that we will lead in
order:
To take new initiatives for the organization and
mobilization of militant unions against the attacks of governments - capital -
EU.
To develop links, communication, exchange of
information, to take steps in coordination, in the expression of international
solidarity and in the development of joint action through the WFTU and the TUI
of the workers in public organizations.
To exchange experience from the struggles of workers
but also to coordinate and plan our action and our struggle.
In our opinion, in the near future the trade unions in
Europe must highlight the following problems:
Ø
Measures to face the pandemic as well as measures to
protect health and safety at work.
Ø
The struggle against high prices and the protection of
popular income. High prices and inflation are consuming people's incomes.
Ø
The struggle for wage increases and the signing of
Collective Agreements. Combined with high prices and low wages, there is a
great intensification of work that exhausts and concerns the vast majority of
workers.
Ø
Promotion of privatizations is one of the most
important pillars of the Lisbon Treaty strategy and is being implemented at
different rates in all Member States of the European Union.
Ø
The dismissals of pioneer workers, trade union leaders.
Ø
We must not lose sight of the issue of repression, by
state and employers'. Intimidation, crackdowns by repressive forces, the massive
presence of police forces and other mechanisms.
We believe that today there is experience; there are
opportunities to take new, militant steps forward in order to have alive,
militant unions, defenders of the workers, on the front line of the struggle
against capitalist exploitation. And not bureaucratic, corrupted unions,
servants of governments and capitalists, because in the face of the general
attack we must empower the unions to be massively militant, we want the workers
in action, in the struggle and in front of the organization of the struggle.
We can and must strengthen the WFTU in Europe and
worldwide.
Every country has wealth and great potential for the
people to live in conditions of prosperity. The problem is that this wealth,
which we produce, is dominated by the few, looted by monopolies. There can be
no fair division between those who produce it and those who usurp it. The point
is to get rid of our exploiters, to overthrow their power.