EFFAT

The first international trade union website using social networking tools – beerworkers.org - is online today. Its launch follows a successful conference last week for trade unionists representing workers in the world’s biggest beer companies: AB InBev, SAB Miller, Heineken and Carlsberg.

Trade unions representing AB InBev workers across Europe have issued a joint statement condemning management’s plan to cut 10 % of the European workforce and warning of possible European actions if things don’t change.

At the General Assembly of the Food industry, the European trade unions of the food and beverages sector evidenced an increasing variety of new forms of labour, atypical contracts and a worrying rise of precarious work. EFFAT affiliates insisted once again on the need to combat the unsecure, unsafe and dangerous form of work in the meat sector.

This working tool presented in a concrete and pragmatic manner in the form of interactive pages, is accessible to all the players concerned on the joint site of the European social partners in the sugar industry eurosugar.org in three languages (English, French and German).

You can find this article and its documents in several languages on www.effat.org

In a seminar organized Wednesday by the Social and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, EFFAT underlined that issues like combating social dumping, fight precarious work and labour exploitation lack from the Stockholm Programme and should be part of the Action Plan of the Commission.

Tour guides, tour managers and entertainers - A dream job! – Really? The reality is often different.

Many tour operators have relocated their recruitment agencies to Switzerland, from where the tour guides, tour managers and entertainers are dispatched to their workplaces in the tourism destinations, and which excludes them from information and consultation rights in the country of their origin and in European Works Councils.

The Charter against precarious work, adopted by the 3rd EFFAT Congress on 20-21 October 2009 in Berlin, is a central document for EFFAT, particularly this year when the fight against poverty is at the top of the European agenda: The European Commission declared 2010 as the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion.

EFFAT and GEOPA launched a CD to support the members of the social partners’ organisations of agriculture within the process of the social dialogue in the new member states and in the accessing countries of the European Union.

Berlin, 21st October 2009

Under the motto: “Social Justice from Farm to Fork. Fight Precarious Work!” the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT) launched its Charter on Precarious Work at a press conference today, during its Congress in Berlin. Statistics for the sectors in question emphasise once again that the situation on the European labour market is actually getting worse, not better.

As the impacts of climate change are predicted to be quite big for EFFAT’s sectors (take for example the fact that the food and drink industry contributes to some 23% of global resource use and 18% of greenhouse gas emissions), EFFAT’s workers shall be exposed to mitigation and adaptation actions which are not always very easy.

There is something different about this crisis. Recent decisions by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and spiralling social conflicts in the UK (Lindsey strikes), France, Italy and elsewhere all show that the EU is facing not just an economic, but also a social crisis. See election results: http://www.elections2009-results.eu/en/index_en.html

On the 23^rd April, the Sherpas (in charge with the preparatory work) met and discussed a roadmap for the concrete steps to be taken in order to fulfil the tasks of the Agro-food High-Level Group Report’s recommendations. On the 17^th March, the High-Level Group met and adopted the Report which willl help pave the way to boosting the performance of this important sector in Europe.

European Commission Vice-President Verheugen set up a High Level Group on the Competitiveness of the Agro-Food Industry [19 KB] composed mainly of representatives of selected Member States, the European Community agro-food industry, of professional associations and of civil society. Vice-President Verheugen is leading this exercise together with his fellow Commissioners Mariann Fischer Boel, Meglena Kuneva and Androula Vassiliou.

The members of the High-Level Group on Agro-food competitiveness meeting at the European Commission agreed on the 6^th July the Roadmap of actions to improve the industry’s competitiveness.

Today, the ETLC launched at the European Tourism Forum, the European Trade Union Charter on Tourism, pointing out main challenges for workers in tourism and formulating expectations vis-à-vis the different stakeholders, employers, political actors and consumers.