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Newsletter

Together for real solidarity

31.5.2023Event

Our contribution to ETUC’s 15th congress.

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Last week in Berlin we joined colleagues from across Europe for ETUC’s 15th congress, which coincided with the organisation’s 50th anniversary. Throughout a packed agenda, the Eurocadres delegation was vocal in advocating for a radical transformation of our social and economic landscape, while emphasising the need for true solidarity between unions as we approach the European elections.

With innumerable topics to discuss, our delegation’s focus was on the key demands put forward through our adopted action plan.

The theme of congress 2023 was “Together for a fair deal for workers”, with President Nayla Glaise being the first to insist that trade unions take their rightful place as the protector of European workers in this challenging period. A union movement distracted by intra-union competition, with disharmony and non-alignment of goals, will result in workers being left unprotected by their elected officials. Togetherness will be central to securing a progressive Europe, a trade union renewal and workers’ rights.

“Renewal of our movement will take us all, and will transcend any divisions we impose. Nothing is important than our fight to improve European workplaces” - Nayla Glaise

Speaking on day one, Ms Glaise said: “Eurocadres, as the European social partner representative for professionals and managers at the cross-sectoral level, believe that competition between trade unions must be sacrificed. The movement must take precedence. Our fight for professionals and managers requires the full strength and support of our already established trade union platforms to develop, to grow and to get closer to workers’ needs, all of which are crucial to our goals.

Renewal of our movement will take us all, and will transcend any divisions we impose. Nothing is important than our fight to improve European workplaces”.

In total five Eurocadres speakers taking the floor over the course of four days. Our contributions can be found in full (both in video and text format) below.

While speeches and contributions to policy debates are a large proportion of any congress, much of our work was conducted in meetings with colleagues from national and international affiliates. We have been blown away by the solidarity and support expressed by comrades last week, with numerous speeches highlighting the significance of professionals and managers in achieving our commons goals, and excellent conversations on future collaboration to deliver.

Far from only rhetoric, our political priorities remained front and centre during our time in Berlin.

Two events illustrated this, as we hosted successful events on our EndStress campaign and work on Artificial Intelligence, with highlights from both available via our twitter account. We would like to give a specific thank you to colleagues at EPSU for the excellent collaboration, and look forward to continued work together in the coming month.

Ultimately, conversations need to become catalysts.