On September 1, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) met with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, current chair of the European Council, to submit a trade union memorandum which presents its priorities. It regrets that France did not place social Europe at the heart of the EU's priorities. Flaying the draft working time directive against which it will fiercely fight, the ETUC also raised concerns about issues concerning the posting of workers and social dumping. (Ref. 080648)
On this occasion, the leaders of the main French trade union confederations (CGT, CFDT, FO, CFTC and Unsa) went with the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), John Monks, and the President of the ETUC, Wanja Lundby Wedin, to the Elysée – the official residence of the French president. In social terms, the ETUC would like the French presidency to address several themes:
- Social progress protocol and the posting of workers. The ETUC is calling for a Social Progress Protocol to be attached to the Treaty to ensure that “fundamental social rights may never be regarded as hierarchically ‘inferior’ to economic freedoms.”
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