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The Party of European Socialists is backing the European Trade Union Confederation campaign and demonstration in Brussels tomorrow – 15 May - ‘Fight the crisis: put the people first.’

There will be a large continent of socialist party members and PES activists from Belgium, France and elsewhere on the demonstration including PES Secretary General Philip Cordery, PS Leader Elio Di Rupo, sp.a leader Caroline Gennez and head of list Kathleen Van Brempt, French PS heads of list Harlem Désir and Gilles Pargneaux joining the thousands of trade unionists marching through the centre of Brussels from Gare du Nord to Gare du Midi.

PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, himself a trade unionist who worked for many years for the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions, said “I have met many workers from different countries in recent weeks and months and I fully understand their fear and anger. Workers and their families are paying the price for a crisis they did not create. The crisis comes on top of many years of undermining trade unions and workers rights in the name of competitiveness. Now we can see that while working families struggled to make a decent living others were indulging in obscene greed.”

“I fully support the European Trade Union Confederation’s demands for a New Social Deal in Europe. Many of their demands such as an expanded recovery programme, effective regulation of financial markets and equal pay for posted workers are already reflected in the Party of European Socialists’ manifesto.”

“The current conservative European Commission has consistently refused to sort out the confusion about workers rights and collective agreements uncertainty mess created by recent European Court of Justice judgements. The current conservative Commission did nothing to ensure a positive outcome from the recent Employment Summit. The conservative Commission is not pressing for new investments to safeguard jobs and create new employment. That’s why we need a new progressive European Commission. That’s why we need a stronger PES in the European Parliament after 7 June elections. That’s why an Employment Pact putting workers rights and social justice before the single market is crucial. That’s why the PES has a new strong recovery plan and an Employment Pact are among the steps the PES demands to be implemented within the first 100 hundred days of the new Parliament.”

On International Workers Day – 1 May – PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen published an open letter to trade unions.

On Saturday 9 May - Europe Day - the PES organized a European day of Action where member parties from all over Europe campaigned on the same issue ‘giving people a fairer deal’ and PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen published a blogpost – also printed in Italian newspaper l’Unità - calling for social justice to be put back at the heart of European politics.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Julian Scola, Communications Advisor - Media & Campaigns
Party of European Socialists, Rue du Trône, 98, B-1050 Brussels
Mobile +32 486 117 394
julian.scola@pes.org