Kommunal, the Swedish think-tank
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, analyses the situation in a number of European countries, concluding that across the continent the sector had not been prioritised.
The report highlighted a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and workers being forced to work unlimited hours. Excessive responsibility placed on individual care workers has resulted in widespread mental-health problems. Yet many workers have been denied access to sick leave or social benefits and, as Amnesty International has documented, hundreds have died from Covid-19.
More than ever there is a need to implement prior and new demands from health and care unions. For all the applause of care workers, the praise has not been followed up and policy-makers and employers need to do more to live up to their promises and make health and care systems resilient in the face of future health emergencies.
ETUI policy brief: Europe’s open strategic autonomy
This policy brief argues that open strategic autonomy policies should take socioeconomic and environmental aspects on board from the design stage onwards, rather than merely integrating them ex post in existing policies. Public acceptance of related policies and initiatives will be boosted if they are designed to support citizens and workers during the digital and green transitions, promote European fundamental rights and values, protect the environment and biodiversity to reduce ecological footprints and influence other global actors to do the same via international agreements that incorporate social and environmental considerations.
The Recovery and Resilience Plans seem to offer a window of opportunity for member states to implement strategic reforms and investments that might advance the EU’s open strategic autonomy. They would improve socioeconomic resilience and support member states in leading the green and digital tra
Support the struggle of WISAG workers at Frankfurt Airport to defend their jobs!
With this appeal, the Network of Action Committees for Safe Workplaces calls for support for the rally of WISAG workers on Tuesday and to extend their fight against layoffs.
The rally will take place on Tuesday, March 16, from noon on the Dernschen grounds, Schlossplatz Wiesbaden, near the Hesse state assembly, where, at the same time, a major debate on the coronavirus policy of the state government is to take place.
Support the struggle of the WISAG workers to defend their jobs! These workers continue the fight for their rights with great determination. Their hunger strike at Frankfurt Airport was just the beginning. They are determined not to be intimidated by the WISAG Group and the Wisser family who own it, nor by the establishment political parties and the trade unions such as Verdi.
Industrial action at WISAG: How the European Union deregulated ground services
For almost three months, a group of ground workers at Frankfurt Airport have been fighting against their dismissal by service provider WISAG. The media remained virtually silent about an eight-day hunger strike at the end of February. Only on 5 March, after the end of the hunger strike, did the first reports about it appear in the
Frankfurter Rundschau or the
WISAG workers on hunger strike (Photo: WSWS)
Michael Dietrich, managing director of WISAG Ground Service Frankfurt, called the hunger strike “excessive and irresponsible,” while the dismissal of the workers was “legitimate” and “necessary,” even though they have been working at Frankfurt Airport for 10 times as long as WISAG itself. According to Dietrich, their hunger strike was “completely disproportionate” and “not a suitable means” to stop “a company from acting in a fundamentally lawful way.”
Water futures: the latest battleground in the defence of the fundamental right to water
According to the United Nations, water use has increased sixfold over the past century and is rising by about 1 per cent a year. For stock market traders in the United States, water futures offer an opportunity to lock-in water prices, but human rights campaigners say, “it is a serious mistake to consider water a commodity”.
(AP/Esteban Felix
)
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According to the United Nations, water use has increased sixfold over the past century and is rising by about 1 per cent a year. For stock market traders in the United States, water futures offer an opportunity to lock-in water prices, but human rights campaigners say, “it is a serious mistake to consider water a commodity”.