Everything started in Spain with the 2012 labour market reform, when the PP (People’s Party) and their absolute majority changed the collective bargaining rules to make company agreements prevail over sector agreements.
Analysing Europe
Latest update : 19 December 2018.
Articles
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Spain: Struggle against pirate companies
14 February 2018 -
Galicia: Mobilisation for workers’ rights
14 February 2018There is no doubt that collective bargaining is the main tool available to the working class to combat the neoliberal policies imposed over the last eight years under the pretext of the crisis.
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Austria: Heading towards ‘Illiberal Democracy’
14 February 2018Six months after a coalition of voters, which ranged from the conservative centre to the Communist Party, voted for the (formally Green) candidate Alexander Van der Bellen to be their Federal President with 54%, Sebastian Kurz – dubbed the “acceptable face of right-wing populism”– managed to gain a majority of ÖVP and FPÖ in parliament.
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Belgium: Struggle for a collective reduction in working time
14 February 2018Faced with an increasing workload and the immobility of employers, workers of Oleon chemical plant in East Flanders decided to go on strike in mid-September 2017. After 3 days of production stoppage, the management accepted the workers’ requests.
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France: Strike in Holiday Inn subcontractor
14 February 2018On January 10, strikers from the Holiday Inn of Clichy – employed by the subcontractor Héméra - and their supporters came to Brussels to demonstrate in front of the hotels of the Intercontinental Hotels Group, one of the world’s largest hotel group. This action is part of a European tour that will take the strikers from Paris to London via Barcelona and Geneva. Interview with Eric, one of the 12 striking employees.
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Europe: Thousands of voices for the right to abortion
14 February 2018Facing a reactionary shift and the prevailing austerity, the right to abortion and its effective exercise are put under pressure throughout Europe. On 28 September, International Day of the Right to Abortion was an opportunity for thousands of women and men to demand that abortion should become a right for all women in Europe.
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The European Commission stalls European Social Dialogue!
14 February 2018About two years ago trade unions including the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) and the European employers of the central government administrations (EUPAE) signed an Agreement on Information and consultation rights for workers, following a Commission’s consultation.
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Editorial: Build an effective network
14 February 2018On the 10th of October, two public service strikes took place simultaneously in France and in Belgium. Several member organizations of the Alter Summit supported this movement.
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French spring against Loi Travail
3 July 2016When it launched its umpteenth reform, the French government was counting on a trade union movement weakened by in-fighting and defeats, on pensions in particular.
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Our health isn’t up for sale!
3 July 2016Commercialisation is having an impact on health care systems everywhere in Europe. Numerous reforms carried out from the end of the 1970s have allowed access by commercial operators aiming to make a profit and thus progressively changing the complex dynamics of health care systems.
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Speech of Sophie Binet (CGT), 1st May in Hambourg
4 June 2015Speech of Sophie Binet, member of the confederal direction of CGT, on May 1 in Hambourg.
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Spain : Another country, another future is born
3 June 2015We were preceded by Greece, where the working class people chose Siriza to rule and build a different country, fair, free and democratic, against all of selfish, decrepit, old Europe’s traps, punches below the belt and blackmailing. On May 24th, change started for Spain as well.
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The Hour of Truth for Europe (editorial newsletter)
3 June 2015About 100 days after a new government was elected in Greece in order to fight austerity, the new anti-austerity left wing in Spain, born of social movements, experienced historic victories. Is this the beginning of the end of austerity in Europe? One cannot yet be sure.
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How did Syriza win ?
1 March 2015Some first observations.
The historical victory of Syriza is not the results of simple twist of fate. Already in 2012 did Syriza appear like a major player, like the principal left-wing party that dared to express a big ambition. By offering to greek electers the possibility to make not a protesting vote but a government vote. -
Defeating the TTIP project is within our reach
28 February 2015There is a growing sentiment that this time the European Commission aimed too high. The most comprehensive free trade agreement in history has encountered resistance in many sectors of society. Europeans, especially in the south, have been questioning the economic policies imposed by the EU institutions in these last years.
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The Belgian D19-20 Alliance: points of analysis
27 February 2015On the 19th of December nearly 4,000 people assembled in the European Quarter of Brussels to denounce austerity policies and free trade agreements (particularly TTIP). This was the third large-scale action of the Belgian D19-20 Alliance since it was officially founded on 19th December 2013.
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Is there a political path towards Paris (COP 21 – December 2015)?
11 November 2014The essential issue of transitioning to an ecological economic system that does not destroy the planet and climate has been deferred by the 2008 “crisis” (undoubtedly one of the numerous benefits the crisis gave banks and multinationals…) Not just deferred in terms of passions and agendas, but also, very concretely, in terms of efforts deployed. More than €1000 billion have been spent by European states to save the banks – money which could have been spent to transform our economy ….
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The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
7 November 2014Since 2002, the European Union and the countries of African, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) negotiate "Economic Partnership Agreements". The Economic Partnership Agreements are agreements between the EU and ACP regionally integrated areas, that is to say, common markets, characterized by a common external tariff (CET) and the free movement of goods within the zone.
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Reflecting on freedom of movement
7 November 201411-12 December 2014, European Parliament in Brussels: seminar to discuss a critical and forward-looking approach to migration policies: reflecting on freedom of movement
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The caravan of refugees and undocumented migrants : a political lesson
18 September 2014The action week of the caravan of refugees and undocumented migrants, which took place from the 20th to the 28th of June 2014 in Brussels, was an unprecedented event. Indeed, more than 500 refugees, migrants and supporters (with a very large majority of migrants) joined together for a week to discuss and take actions on the fringe of the summit of heads of States who were discussing the european migratory problems.
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