The answer to the question if the European trade union movement is working as one to support European legislation on decent minimum wages is ‘not quite’, but ‘almost’. On 03 September the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) issued a press release announcing that ‘the overwhelming majority of European trade unions representing 45 million workers have voted in favour of a new EU law to support fair minimum wages and collective bargaining,’ with the overwhelming majority in question amounting to 85% of the votes in favour. 87 national trade unions from across Europe took part in the vote, plus 10 European sectoral unions, following a ‘full and open’ debate, the ETUC statement read. Key to the ETUC statement is how it cast divided opinion within the body on such EU legislation whilst being transparent and as such indicating that the organisation will be giving the European Commission its full backing for a fair minimum salary guarantee for every worker in the EU.
The debate did not really remove the reticence of certain national trade union organizations (particularly in the Nordic countries, except Finland) opposed in principle to public authorities intervention on a subject that is essentially within their competence. However in securing 85% support, the ETUC believes that it has a sufficiently strong mandate to put pressure on the European Commission to present a directive guaranteeing that minimum salaries are not below a threshold that allows a dec
…Do you have information to share with us?