Posts in the "European Pillar Of Social Rights" category
European Pillar of Social Rights Offers New Hope for Social Europe
Posted on December 16, 2016
ETUC Confederal Secretary
The EU is slowly emerging from the worst economic crisis in its history.
One of major casualties of that crisis was the European Social Model, undermined and weakened by the official response to a meltdown in the financial system.
Fundamental social rights and public services have been sacrificed. But an EU focused only in the market will not maintain the support and trust of workers and citizens.
With a third of workers across the EU struggling to make ends meet, Europe urgently needs a new social pact.
We need more Social Europe.
We need a vision that is bold enough to redress the glaring imbalance in the current model, that restores the primacy of livelihoods and living standards in EU policy.
Permanent link | Categories: EU • Social Europe • European Pillar of Social Rights
FIFA'S SQUALID SECRET
Posted on April 18, 2016
Sharan Burrow - General Secretary of the ITUC - says a new report on human rights could finally force FIFA to do the right thing for workers in Qatar
Thousands of workers building the 2022 FIFA World Cup facilities and infrastructure in Qatar are forced to live as modern day slaves. They are housed in squalid conditions and survive on poor quality food and insufficient water.
Temperatures in the slave state of Qatar can sometimes reach 122° Fahrenheit.
These bonded workers are paid badly and often receive no money for months on end. No worker can leave an unsafe or abusive work environment or even exit the country without the employer’s permission.
Permanent link | Categories: FIFA • Qatar • Workers Rights
FIRST STEPS
Posted on March 16, 2016
Dr. Peter Rigney looks at the problems that bedevil childcare in Ireland and outlines how we can move to a high-quality, acessible and affordable model
‘Policy failure’ is a polite term used to describe the inability or unwillingness of governments and assorted lawmakers to deliver solutions to pressing problems, or to anticipate and avert disaster.
The banking crisis and our resulting economic collapse was a policy failure of epic proportions, even if a succession of inquiries and reports has, as yet, failed to apportion blame and suitable punishment.
The homeless crisis is another, more recent example of a systemic political inability to act decisively when there is pressing and obvious social need.
Permanent link | Categories: Childcare • social policy
NEW YEAR, SAME OLD TORIES
Posted on January 07, 2016
Head of the TUC’s European Union & International Relations Department
The TUC's Owen Tudor reports on the UK government's ongoing assault on union rights and why Valentine's Day may be a little different this year
On Monday (11 January), the UK’s House of Lords began detailed consideration of the government’s Trade Union Bill, the latest attempt to relive the Thatcherite dream of 'taking on' the trade unions and restricting our ability to defend workers’ rights and public services.
The Bill emerged largely unscathed from the House of Commons before Christmas, although the government was forced to concede some ground on the more alarming attacks on the right to strike – such as the Orwellian requirement that unions should advise the police and employers of union social media strategies (but not vice versa.)
Permanent link | Categories: union rights • TUC • right to strike • Tory government
TORY AGENDA ON EUROPE THREATENS RIGHTS OF ALL WORKERS
Posted on October 30, 2015
Head of the TUC’s European Union & International Relations Department
By Owen Tudor*
The TUC has long been committed to the model of Social Europe as outlined by Jacques Delors.
The deal he set out is still the only deal in town: a free trade area, but not unfettered free trade In other words:
- Rights at work to counterbalance the right to trade,
- Free movement of labour, goods and capital,
- Decent work with social dialogue, social protection and public services ,
- And a successful, competitive economy in which wealth is shared fairly.
And what we got in the early years was pretty much what Delors promised.
Permanent link | Categories: ETUC • Brexit • European Union • TUC
Who Remembers Charlie Hebdo?
Posted on January 29, 2015
NUJ Irish Secretary, Seamus Dooley outside the Charlie Hebdo offices, Paris
Séamus Dooley, Irish Secretary, NUJ
Every morning I click on the International Federation of Journalists’ website.
On the top right hand corner there’s a black countdown clock. It details the number of journalists and media staff killed so far this year.
As I write – on January 29 - that number stands at 22.
This week my NUJ colleague Jim Boumelha, President of the IFJ condemned the brutal murder of Mexican journalist Moises Sanchez Cerezo, from the town of Medellín de Bravo, in the state of Veracruz.
Permanent link | Comments (0) | Categories: Charlie Hebdo • Media • NUJ • Freedom of Expression