Official Campaign Partners

Over the years, the EU has gradually increased its influence in the areas that most affect workers. In response, Europe's trade unions came together to form the ETUC, so as to speak with a single voice on behalf of European workers and have a stronger say in EU decision-making. The ETUC defends fundamental social values such as solidarity, equality, democracy, social justice and cohesion.
It fights for:
• high quality jobs for all
• a high level of social protection
• gender equality and fair pay
• equal opportunities
• social inclusion and fundamental rights
• good health and safety at work
• freedom of movement for European workers, and an end to abuse and exploitation
• high quality public services that are accessible to all
• a European framework to raise the standard of national social legislation
• action to combat climate change while protecting workers’ jobs
• promotion of these European social values in other parts of the world

The last ETUC Congress in Paris in 2015 adopted a Manifesto that lays out demands in the areas of economic governance and employment policy, trade union rights and social dialogue, ambitious social standards and fair globalisation. The Manifesto rejects austerity policies, imposed without democratic accountability, which have forced workers to pay for a crisis they did not cause. The Paris Manifesto calls on European decision-makers to change their approach without delay and to invest in full employment and quality jobs, so as to create “a strong economy that serves the people” and reverse the growth in poverty and social exclusion.
The Manifesto also calls for social dialogue and collective bargaining to be strengthened across Europe, and urges the EU to aim for social progress as its top priority.

Luca Visentini, ETUC Secretary General
Per Hilmersson, ETUC Deputy Secretary General