Name: Europe's essential workers demand to stop the race to the bottom
Start: 2024-10-01T00:00:00+02:00
Location: Place Jean Rey, 1040 Brussel, België

Europe's essential workers demand to stop the race to the bottom

Nearly a thousand essential workers – cleaners, security guards and catering workers – from six countries across Europe will protest in Brussels to stop the “race to the bottom” on working conditions in their sectors.
While the Covid-19 crisis underscored the critical role of essential workers in the functioning of our societies and economies, both public and private clients continue to view them merely as a cost factor rather than an essential investment in safe, clean, and healthy workplaces. Companies employing these workers often cut corners, overload workers, and jeopardize their health, safety, and well-being, undermining their dignity.
The timing of this demonstration is crucial. The newly elected EU Parliament will have the highest presence of far-right, extreme-right and fascist parties since its inception. These parties seek to use the EU Parliament to divide workers based on nationality, religion, gender, and sexual orientation. Only the trade union movement has the power to unite all workers, regardless of their occupation, origin and identity.
The Covid-19 crisis underscored the critical role of outsourced cleaners, security workers, and catering workers. Yet, both public and private clients continue to view these workers merely as a cost factor rather than an essential investment in safe, clean, and healthy workplaces.
The workers demand a revision of the EU Public Procurement Directive, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced to take place in the next EU mandate, that includes social provisions in public tendering for all public authorities in the EU, such as that awarding companies respect a collective agreement with a trade union. This will not just allow EU member states to increase collective bargaining coverage as set out in the EU minimum wage law, but it will give workers and their trade unions the bargaining power to win better pay and fairer workloads across their sectors.
Under the banner “stop the race to the bottom,” nearly a thousand workers will take to the streets of the European capital. The EU and the European institutions should be a role model when it comes to fair work. However, recent investigations reveal that the working conditions in the Parliament and European Commission are sub-par.
That is why they will be demanding:
• No public contract without a collective agreement
• Security workers deserve better
• Stop turbo-cleaning – stop overworking us: Fair workloads now!
• Fair working conditions for catering workers who serve you