EU: the European Metalworkers’ Federation worried about exclusion clauses in national auto recovery plans

On November 24, 2008, EMF representatives already met with Gunter Verheugen within the framework of a meeting dedicated to the future of the automotive industry (see our dispatch No. 080926). The EMF posed certain requirements to the allocation of help to carmakers: no job cuts and the respect of collective and wage agreements.
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(Ref. 090117)

In the letter sent on January 26, he highlights that “the fact that employment in only financially strong countries is being protected and that this then leads to job cuts in countries with fewer means available, runs fundamentally counter to the idea of European unity. ‘Distortion of competition’ of this kind weighs heavily on workers.” He notably mentioned the French recovery plan, in which President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated that companies that close sites in France would not

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