About: Trade Unions Archives

French rail travellers faced more misery today (3 June) as strikes cut train services by half but a militant union's bid to widen protests against planned labour reforms to air traffic control and the Paris metro appeared to fail.

Striking rail workers halted about half of French train services on Wednesday (1 June) in a dispute over working time as a standoff between the militant CGT union and the Socialist government over a proposed labour law reform escalated.

Police fired tear gas after protesters hurled bottles and other projectiles during a May Day rally in Paris yesterday (1 May), where controversial labour reforms were the main focus of demonstrations.

If managed correctly, the increasing use of digital technology in the workplace could help bring workers together and strengthen their role within businesses. Our partner La Tribune reports.

The European Commission wants to establish minimum social rights as part of a package due to be unveiled in Spring 2016. Paris and Berlin are exploring plans for a "social Eurogroup", the French President said. EURACTIV France reports. 

The US economic recovery is false, according to Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz. He told La Tribune that sustainable growth can only be achieved by tackling inequality, limiting the power of the financial sector, and reempowering trade unions.

Union leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have called for TTIP negotiators to drop extra-legal arbitration systems from any future trade deal. They believe existing judicial systems offer adequate protection to investors. EURACTIV France reports. 

EU leaders finished their summit late last night (18 December), avoiding major protests that have completely blocked the Brussels’s European quarter today (19 December).

The European labour market is being overhauled in a thorough 'individualist' revolution that is moving workers away from fixed-term contracts and towards collaboration and subordination, argues Denis Pennel.

Trade unions in the EU institutions warned they could go on strike next week, threatening to disrupt a European summit on 27-28 June if the European Commission doesn’t withdraw a proposed reform of staff regulations. Trade unions say the Commission is keeping EU officials in the dark about the latest developments in the negotiations.

European unions and businesses have released a series of proposals to fight the EU’s "dangerous" levels of youth employment, but concrete results may prove hard to measure.

Workers in EU institutions are preparing to go on strike on 5 June if the European Council, where member states sit, get the upper hand in a proposed reform of the institutions’ staff regulations. Trade unions described the Council position as the “most serious attack” on civil servants’ incomes the EU has ever seen.

Social dialogue is under great strain throughout the EU because of the economic crisis, with Eastern Europe particularly hard hit, says a report presented by the European Commission yesterday (11 April).

Unions representing airline pilots and flight attendants plan a European-wide demonstration on Tuesday (22 January) against proposed EU regulations on flight duty times, though officials say the action is unlikely to disrupt travel.

A British academic who has spent hundreds of hours in cockpits studying pilots’ performance says proposed EU regulations for airplane crews overlook important safety risks, including changes in the aviation industry that mean pilots may no longer live close to where they work.

Trade unions say the European Commission's new industrial policy must be followed up with concrete actions.

Europe’s aviation safety regulator today (1 October) recommended 30 new regulations that agency officials say would make flying safer but acknowledged would not make either airlines or trade unions happy.

Yes, European countries have to cut public spending in order to put their finances back in shape. But this should not compromise essential public services such as education, health care or tax collection, writes Klaus Heeger of the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI).

Union leaders from across Europe gathered in Brussels yesterday (25 January) and agreed to oppose the 'fiscal compact' treaty. They proposed an alternative set of policies – including a new role for the European Central Bank and increased investment – which they say will provide growth and jobs.

European trade union leader John Monks is calling for a more ambitious EU plan to invest in green industries and jobs. He spoke to EURACTIV ahead of a European summit this week (11-12 December), at which EU leaders are expected to adopt a Europe-wide fiscal stimulus to fight the economic crisis.

EU countries should pour money into 'green' jobs to make Europe the world leader in green engineering, John Monks, secretary-general of ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation, told EURACTIV in an interview, describing the bloc's economic recovery plan as "ambitious, but not enough".

As trade union members gathered in their thousands to demand wage rises in the face of rising prices, EU finance ministers warned that excessive pay hikes risked fuelling spiralling inflation.

A series of attacks by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet on collective bargaining agreements that adapt wages to increased costs of living have been strongly criticised by trade unions throughout the EU.