Europe’s industry trade union federation, IndustriALL Europe, has called for ‘stricter definitions of essential production in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and for workers' rights to health protection to be safeguarded.’ As underlined in the press statement from 24 March, trade unions have reacted to a certain number of industrial activities in Italy and in Belgium having being designated as ‘essential’ and as such implying the requirement for workers to come to work and leave themselves potentially open to Covid-19. Italy’s industrial trade unions are calling for strike action and Belgium’s chemical industry trade unions have launched an online campaign.
Online campaign across Belgium’s chemical industry. ‘Across the country the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are still in operation because they have been designated as essential’, the IndustriALL Europe press statement underlined. ‘While most of the pharmaceutical sector could certainly merit the designation, IndustriALL Europe does contest that it equally applies to all of the chemical production industry.’
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