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Brussels – More than 150 Slovak trade unionists from all regions of Slovakia joined a pan-European protest on Wednesday morning, organized in Brussels near the EU institutions by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the IndustriAll Europe association. Monika Benedeková, the chairwoman of OZ KOVO, confirmed this in Brussels to the TASR correspondent.
According to Benedeková, the demonstration of industrial workers was held under the slogan “Invest in good jobs” and was related to the fact that the European Commission (EC), which recently submitted the compass for competitiveness, will present the clean industry agreement at the end of February.
“We aim to restore competitiveness because we feel that the main industrial sectors in Europe are losing breath and competitiveness compared to the United States, China, and Asia. We, as unions representing the rights and interests of employees, want the clean industry agreement not to focus solely on restoring competitiveness but not to forget about the position, rights, and working conditions of employees,” Benedeková explained.
According to her, IndustriAll Europe, which also encompasses OZ KOVO, formulated five main demands. These demands were presented on Wednesday by the delegation of European unionists, which included Benedeková as the sole representative from Eastern European countries, to the EC’s Executive Vice-President responsible for prosperity and industrial strategy, Stéphane Sejourné, and EC Vice-President for prosperity and industrial strategy, Roxana Minza.
“Both commissioners said that for them, the social aspect of EU industrial policy remains an important priority, and they cannot afford to forget about employees. They don’t want EU citizens to feel forgotten when forming EU policy, as it then leads to the spread of radicalism and extremism,” stated the head of OZ KOVO.
According to her, the Euro commission has agreed with the unions to continue discussions, with the social dialogue at the highest level starting next week. In practice, this means that every measure and legislative proposal will be discussed with IndustriAll Europe or ETUC.
The chairwoman of OZ KOVO emphasized that Slovakia will be part of all of this, which is good because the socio-economic conditions differ between EU countries.
“I presented the perspective not only of Slovakia but of all Central and Eastern European countries. Not only from the point of view that energy-intensive sectors dominate here, such as metallurgy, engineering, the automotive industry, and in Poland, the coal industry as well, but also that we do not have as strong a tool as social dialogue and collective bargaining, and that compared to Western countries, we do not have such high coverage by collective agreements,” Benedeková described the situation. (February 5th)
“We, as unions representing the rights and interests of employees, want the clean industry agreement not to focus solely on restoring competitiveness, but not to forget about the position, rights, and working conditions of employees.” Monika Benedeková