ECTUN Actions

The 2020 conference of the European Capitals Trade Union Network (ECTUN) took place in the SAK education centre at Kiljavaranta, Finland.

The conference was attended by 45 delegates representing 21 Union Organizations from 14 European capitals: Athens EKA, Belgrade CATUB, Berlin DGB, Copenhagen LO-D, Helsinki SAK, La Valletta GWU, Lisbon CGTP-IN, London GLATUC, TUC LESE, Madrid CCOO, UGT, Moscow MTUF, Paris CGT, CFDT, FO, UNSA, Rome CGIL, CISL, UIL, Sofia PODKREPA, Stockholm LO-S, along with Luca Visentini ETUC General Secretary, Jarkko Eloranta President of SAK, Philippe Pochet ETUI General Director, Vera Dos Santos Costa ETUI Director of the education department, Ludovic de Vout ETUC Confederal Secretary on Sustainable Development and Energy Policy, Lene Olsen Senior programme and operations specialist at the ILO, and many experts. The Conference was under the auspices of the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).

From the 18th to the 20th of March, PODKREPA and CITUB both members of ECTUN, hosted in Sofia the annual Conference of the European Capitals Trade Unions. At the event participated trade unionists representing 30 Unions from 12 European Capital Cities: Sofia, Athens, Belgrade, Berlin, La Valletta, London, Madrid, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Rome and Riga. The topics of the Conference were:

• Mobility in Capital Cities at the digital age for a better life.
• The Priorities of the ETUC Congress and
• European elections, populism and extreme right.

The Conference was under the auspices of the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC) and the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), whose General Secretary Luca Visentini and respectively the General Director Philippe Pochet participated actively.

The Bulgarian authorities participated at the Conference were: Biser Petkov, Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Yordanka Fandakova the Mayor of Sofia, and the leaders of the Trade Unions.

“Vote for workers’ rights and democracy”

The European elections take place in a crucial moment, not only for Europe but also worldwide. Across a number of capital cities, we observe an alarming rise of various populist and far Right movements.

That’s the reason ECTUN members call for this trend to be reversed this trend, and to encourage the highest possible worker participation in the forthcoming European, national and local elections.

In recent times, numerous signals have been launched by the political forces of the international and European Right on the alleged need to supersede participatory democracy and its value system, through a systematic project to debase the institutional and constitutional counterweights to the governmental majority and of social and cultural mediating institutions.

This attack on public freedom does not involve their symbolic functions. Parliament is not abolished, not even elections. We must always remember that the tragic dictatorships of the 20th century were born out of parliaments following free elections.

Far from being a spectre, populism and extremism is already present in Europe.

There is the example of Hungary, where the judiciary has already been subjected to executive power and it seems prevalent also in other European states.

In a democracy the will of the majority should not undermine the rights of minorities, oppositions or organized structures of civil society such as trade unions.

Dealing with populism requires the construction of a participatory and widespread democratic European model that redesigns a new social and economic strategy and that actually returns power to citizens and peoples.

Of course, in Europe we need new policies to rebuild a feeling of trust with and between people.

The future of Europe is going through a “break” with the policies followed so far. Europe’s current course is bound to aggravate the crisis and the serious economic and social problems it faces.

We don’t want an EU that criticizes xenophobic attitudes but tolerates the construction of barriers in several countries. An EU where when one is in the pre-election campaign some political parties in power adopt the kind of discourse and proposals of the far right that they supposedly fight, just so they will remain in power.

What we do want is a pro-European vision of solidarity, participation and credibility that would also involve a strong sense of commitment on the part of Trade unions and their capacity to mobilize citizens.

We, the members of ECTUN, know that a fairer Europe for workers is possible, based on democracy and social justice, quality jobs with higher wages and equal pay, a socially fair and just transition to a low-carbon and digital economy.

This should be the basis of a new social contact for Europe, and we encourage our members to support the ETUC demonstration on Friday 26 April 2019 in Brussels, in front of the European Parliament.

We, the representatives of hundreds of thousands of workers from the Trade Unions of the European Capital Cities, we encourage workers to vote.

Participating in elections is the most convincing expression of democratic rights defending the values of working people, the social and civic rights, the progress and social justice, solidarity and peace.

This declaration is adopted by the 18th ECTUN Conference

Sofia, 20 March 2019

On the 8 and 9 of November 2018, was held in Sofia the meeting of the Permanent Committee (PC) of the European Capitals’ Trade Unions (ECTUN). The PC worked on the planning of the forthcoming annual Conference of ECTUN that will be held from 18 to 20 of March 2019.

The PC decided on the main topic of the Conference, that will be: “Mobility in the capital cities in the digital era”: Capital cities’ transport systems, using latest technical and digital systems, must support the mobility and quality of life of all workers. Public ownership and public delivery of city transport is the most effective method of delivering a high quality service meeting these needs.

The title of the Conference:

“Transports and mobility in the European Capital Cities for the improvement of living and working conditions”.

Noted that there was a Referendum in Rome on the privatization of public transport in the city (on Sunday 11/11/2018), a message of solidarity for public transport was sent to Rome trade unions form the PC.

A second topic will be: “Populism and the far right: noting the election of various populist and far right representatives across a number of capital cities, trade unions in the capitals call for opposition to this trend, including the highest possible worker participation in forthcoming European, national and local elections”

Dear colleagues,

It is a great honor to be here on the occasion of the VII Congress of the UIL of Rome and Lazio, on behalf of the ECTUN network.

We are here on the kind invitation of the Secretary General Alberto Civica, and on this occasion we inaugurate the new era of our network.

It could not be more appropriate to start from here, since in November 1985, during the III Congress of the UIL, the idea of creating a Permanent Forum of the European capitals’ unions, for a continuous exchange of ideas, experiences and for undertaking and developing initiatives on themes of common interest, was born.

It has been 33 years already. The world has changed profoundly, progressing and regressing at the same time.

Another year is approaching on March 8, the International Women’s day, which once again is not only the struggle of working women in the world, but it is and must be a struggle of all societies for women's rights. The organizations members of the ECTUN fight for equality between women and men, and we must reflect this in our trade union activity, both within the organization itself and in all areas of society, since one of the priorities of this network, is to improve the living and working conditions of working people.

The global economic crisis that began in 2007 has hit women especially hard, placing them with higher rates of unemployment, lower activity, greater temporariness and part-time hiring, in addition to enduring discrimination based on race, age, physical stereotypes and even because they are mothers or not, in addition to fighting against sexism in the media.

This March 8, the organizations that make up ECTUN decided to support the mobilizations of women and the strikes that will be called in the labor field because we understand that one of our main principles is that work is the path to independence and full development of people, having this one to comply with the parameters of dignity, equity and justice that we defend.

Our main demands for this March 8 are:

• Prevent gender gaps in access to employment, wages and hiring, training, pensions.
• Fight the precariousness of work produced by poor working women.
• Win spaces of representation and power in organizations and society.
• To achieve the additional social guaranties for women in collective negotiation.
• Educate people in equality and co-responsibility from the educational sphere and in society.
• Fight against sexual harassment in the workplace, physical, psychological, judicial, sexual and economic violence and in any way that harms women workers.
• Stop direct and indirect discrimination and gender wage gap.

We encourage all the European trade union organizations members of ECTUN to support, in the measure that they consider this, the international action strengthening women rights.

Long live the workers' struggle!
Viva la lucha de las trabajadoras!
Vive la lutte ouvrière!
Es lebe der Kampf der Arbeiterinnen!
Vivere a lungo la lotta dei lavoratori!

The 17th Conference of the European Capitals Trade Union Network took place in La Valletta, Malta, from 31 January to 2 February 2018. The meeting was hosted by the GWU – Malta and attended by 42 participants, representing 23 Trade Union organisations from 15 Capital Cities.

Delegates represented Athens EKA, Belgrade CATUS, Berlin DGB, Bratislava KOZ SR, Copenhagen LO-D, Helsinki SAK, La Valletta GWU, Lisbon CGTP-IN, London GLATUC, SERTUC, Madrid CCOO, UGT, Moscow MTUF, Paris CFDT, CGT, FO, UNSA, Rome CGIL, CISL, UIL, Sofia CITUB, PODKREPA, Vilnius Solidarumas.

The theme of the conference was “How trade unions of the European capital cities can approach the issue of pay rise” – we met in both plenary and workshop groups and were addressed by Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC, government ministers, academics and trade unions.

Speakers:
- Ulisses Garrido (ETUI)
- Josef Bugeja (GWU)
- Dr Gordon Cordina (MALTA)
- Liberio Domingues (CGTP)
- Luca Visentini (ETUC)
- Professor Edward Sciciuna, Minister of Finance (MALTA)
- Maria Helena Andre (ILO/ACTRAV)
- Doro Zinke (DGB)
- Helena Dalli, Minister for European Affairs and Equality (MALTA)
- Anton Leppik (PERC)
- Vera dos Santos Costa (ETUI)

According to London Decision, a Permanent Committee (PC) consisting of 6 members was elected, with secret ballot for a three-year term. The members of the Permanent Committee are: Christina Theochari (Athens), Hannele Ugur (Helsinki), Megan Dobney (London), Mikhail Antontsev (Moscow), Franco Fatiga (Rome), Veselina Starcheva (Sofia). The PC elected as coordinator Christina Theochari.

The 16th Permanent Conference of the European Capitals' Trade Unions took place in Esher England from 8 to 10 March 2017. The topic of the Conference was: “Trade unions' role in the integration of migrant workers". Besides the main topic on migrants the delegates were briefed on the repercussions of Brexit and trade unions’ actions on that.

46 delegates from trade union organizations all over Europe participated, as follows: EKA Athens, DGB Berlin, LO Hovedstaden Copenhagen, SAK Helsinki, GWU La Valletta Malta, US Lisboa/CGTP-IN Lisbon, GLATUC London, SERTUC London, CCOO Madrid, UGT Madrid, MTUF Moscow, FO Paris, URIF Paris, URI CFDT Ile-de-France Paris, CGIL Rome-Lazio, CISL Rome-Lazio, UIL Rome-Lazio, PODKREPA Sofia, LO Stockholm, SOLIDARUMAS Vilnius.

ETUC participated with the General Secretary Luca Visentini and Marco Cilento coordinator of UnionMigrantNet.

EKA was represented by the General Secretary Kostas Koulouris and the Head of International Relations Department, Christina Theochari. The Permanent Conference of European Capitals Trade Unions was established in 1989 as a permanent Forum of dialogue and cooperation between its members. EKA is one of the founding members.

The trade union organisations part of the European Capitals Trade Union Network (ECTUN) met in Vilnius on September 8-10 at the occasion of the XIV conference. In the conference participated 48 delegates representing 24 trade union organisations.

During the works of the conference, a report of a survey based on a questionnaire answered by organizations members was presented. The survey dealt with the effects of the austerity in the capital cities, the unemployment, precarious working conditions, disadvantaged workers, poverty rates and a set of good practices set up by the unions in the capital cities and regions in order to tackle the effects of austerity measures on workers and people.

The conference included a session on the actual challenges that the ETUC is facing at the moment and Luca Visentini, ETUC Confederal Secretary has been present.

Trade unions present at the conference agreed on an ECTUN understanding which describes the way the network works.

The 13th Permanent Conference of the European Capitals Trade Unions took place in Rome from 23 to 26 September 2013. The topic of the Conference was: “The contribution and role of the trade union organisations of the capital cities in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy”.

59 delegates from 24 trade union organisations have participated in it as follows: EKA Athens, DGB Berlin, CSC Brussels, Banc Post Union Bucharest, LO Hovedstaden Copenhagen, SAK Helsinki, GWU La Valletta Malta, US Lisboa/CGTP-IN Lisbon, GLATUC London, SERTUC London, CCOO Madrid, UGT Madrid, MTUF Moscow, ΣΕΚ Nicosia, FO Paris, URIF Paris, URI CFDT Ile-de-France Paris, CGIL Rome-Lazio, CISL Rome-Lazio, UIL Rome-Lazio, PODKREPA Sofia, LO Stockholm, SOLIDARUMAS Vilnius, Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia-LBAS Riga, Latvian Trade Union ESE Employees Riga.

Delegates from neighbouring trade union organisations of capital cities like Kiev, Minsk and UGTT Tunis have also taken part as observers. In the Conference participated a representative from ETUC. EKA was represented by the responsible of International Relations Department, Christina Theochari.

The Permanent Conference of European Capitals Trade Unions was established in 1989 as a permanent Forum of dialogue and cooperation between its members. EKA is one of the founding members.