Joint Statement from European Trade Unions
4 Mar 2009
ATTACKING WAGES IS THE WRONG STRATEGY
Joint statement on behalf of the ETUC (European Trade union Confederation), EPSU (European Federation of Public Services Unions), Ver.di (Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft) and the ICTU (Irish Congress of Trade Unions).
March 4, 2009
European trade unions are stunned to hear the president of the European Central Bank (ECB) once again attack public sector wages. The independent ECB is providing political support for governments keen on implementing wage cuts to the order of around 15%. Moreover, the advice coming from the ECB president is 'bad economics'. With the European economy facing the worst recession since World War II, wages should be a pillar of stability and not an accelerator of depression and deflation.
Reiner Hoffmann, deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said:
"It is frightening to see how the president of the European Central Bank has forgotten the lessons of the Great Depression of the 1930's. It is not wages but interest rates that should be cut."
Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Services Unions said: "Labour is not a commodity. We welcome the recent Ver.di agreement in the German public sector (5% wage increase over two years) as striking a balance between the need to support household demand in times of crisis and the objective to maintain the sustainability of public finances."
David Begg, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said: "Deflation is not the way to go. The name of the game is debt deflation. Wage cuts will worsen the already excessive debt load of households and this will end up in killing the domestic side of the Irish economy."
Frank Bsirske, President from Ver.di (Federation of Public services: Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft) said: "In the past, German economic policy has done exactly what the ECB is now recommending. Generalised stagnation of average real wages together with real wage cuts for workers at the bottom of the labour market have proven to be disastrous. The German economy has remained in the doldrums for many years while poverty, in particular child poverty, has seen a spectacular increase."
For further contacts:
ETUC: Patricia Grillo, +32 (0) 2 224 04 30
EPSU: Brian Synnott, + 32 (0) 2 250 10 80
ICTU: Mcdara Doyle, + 353 1 8897799
Ver.di:+49 (0)30/6956 1011