TRADE UNIONS ACROSS EUROPE SLAM EU AUSTERITY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april/may 2014 :: RMTnews 25 Workers are being forced to pay for the crisis of capitalism through mechanisms imposed national governments, EU courts and the EU/IMF and European Central Bank troika agreed unions attending the World Federation of Trade Unions meeting in London hosted RMT. RMT agreed to host the meeting following Bob Crow’s attendance at the Presidential Council of WFTU last February, which ratified RMT’s affiliation to the organisation, which represents 86 million organized workers in over 120 countries, was agreed unanimously. WFTU general secretary George Mavrikos paid tribute to Bob and described his death as a great loss for WFTU and for the international class-oriented trade union movement. He said that the European Union was leading the attacks on working people by undermining trade union rights, imposing privatisation and condemning entire populations to unemployment and poverty. “The EU is an imperialist organisation, a union of capitalists, formed in order to defend their class interests against the workers and the peoples. “It turned out to be a myth, that EU membership means development for the benefit of the people, the only point of agreement among European monopoly capital is the economic and social aggression against the people,” he said. He said that the so called ‘liberalisation’ of transport had brought billions in profits for the monopolies, at the expense of the workers in the sector and the users of transport and maritime services. “The experience of privatisations of transport and railways in the UK, Greece, France and other countries is the same casualisation, social dumping, lower wages and job cuts. He said that the EU was actively participating in the game of inter imperialist competition, generating hazards for the peoples all over the globe. “The EU’s role in the recent events in Ukraine is revealing but EU governments are also involved in Syria, Mali, the Central African Republic as well as Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, a stance that is creating thousands of victims. “The answer is clear, that is to unite the working class in defence of its own class interests and to construct a militant trade union movement in all levels: nationally and worldwide,” he said. Speaking in Bob’s place, acting general secretary Mick Cash reminded conference that workers in Britain are facing very similar cuts to their rights and living standards as workers in the European countries where the troika of EU-ECB-IMF dictate their policy. “The current Tory/Lib Dem government had overseen over one million public sector workers losing their jobs, attacks on redundancy payments and pensions, pay freezes and pay cuts and deregulation for employers – especially through attacks on health and safety at work,” he said. He said that RMT would campaign for all work on the rail network to be undertaken in-house, without subcontractors, employment agencies, payroll companies, umbrella companies or any of the other mechanisms used to heighten the exploitation of the workforce,” he said. He said that the union would be supporting the NO2EU coalition in the 2014 European elections on on May 22 under the slogan Yes to Workers’ Rights’. “We want to see a Europe of democratic states that value public services and does not offer them to profiteers; a Europe that guarantees the rights of workers and does not put the interests of big business above that of ordinary people. “We believe the current structures of the EU make this impossible,” he said. For more information go to http://www.wftucentral.org TRADE UNIONS ACROSS EUROPE SLAM EU AUSTERITY Unions from across Europe meet in London to oppose EU diktats forcing working people to pay for the growing economic crisis