Defend the Right to Strike: Unite for Dialogue, Bargaining, and Justice in the EU

Across Europe, the capitalist drive for profit is accelerating layoffs, restructuring, and austerity, deepening social and economic crises. Corporations are tightening the screws on workers with job cuts in manufacturing and other key sectors. From Tesla disputes in Sweden to Audi’s factory closing in Belgium to Volkswagen’s cost-cutting plans in Germany and Italy’s anti-worker budget proposals under Meloni, labor rights are under attack, and the right to strike, a cornerstone of collective resistance, is routinely disrespected.

While Ursula von der Leyen makes lofty promises of social dialogue, no cosmetic pact can mask the EU’s failure to universally protect the right to strike. The Left rejects the European Commission’s plan of austerity, and exploitation, as workers rights are non-negotiable. We will always fight for an economy centered on people, not profit, and defend the universal right to strike as a fundamental right in the fight for social justice.

Left MEP and Chair of the EMPL Committee Li Andersson (Vasemmistoliitto, Finland): “The Tesla example shows why safeguarding the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike is increasingly important. They are fundamental tools for ordinary people and workers to protect their democratic rights, and they are tools to ensure that people like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos – the richest man in the world – cannot dictate the rules in the labour market as they wish.”

Left MEP and Coordinator for The Left in EMPL Committee Leila Chaibi (La France Insoumise, France): “In the warehouses or behind the wheel of trucks, Amazon employees are increasingly replacing Santa’s elves each year. I commend the courage of these women and men who, all around the world, go on strike during the peak of Christmas. They are demanding decent breaks, fair wages, and dignified working conditions—basic demands, far from a letter to Santa.”

The Left and Trade Unions issue a joint call for: 

  • Directive on anticipation and management of change
  • For a positive outcome of the ongoing revision of the European Works Councils directive
  • For the creation of a workers’ right to paid training during working time

Fighting Abusive Subcontracting and Labour Market Intermediaries: Protecting Workers’ Rights

Subcontracting is rampant in sectors like food, agriculture, garments, road transport, and construction, where it often results in the exploitation and abuse of workers. Companies use subcontracting to boost profits at the expense of workers’ rights, creating complex chains that make it easier to exploit and underpaid labor. The Due Diligence Directive, where The Left led the fight to end corporate impunity in the previous mandate, is intended to hold large corporations accountable for their human rights and environmental abuses both within and beyond Europe. 

However, this was without taking into account the will of the European Commission, which, with its new college of commissioners, wants to increase corporate profits at the expense of workers’ rights. This new Commission’s path is clear: it has chosen a side—and it’s not with the people, but with the richest 1%, embracing neoliberalism and neo-fascism.

We will always oppose those politics, economic justice is not charity; it is a right. 

The Left and Trade Unions issue a joint call for: 

  • For an EU legal framework on subcontracting
  • The revision of public procurement directives.

Left MEP Rudi Kennes (PTB, Belgium): The arbitrary austerity rules of the European Union force member states and local governments to award public contracts to the lowest bidder. This results in a whole chain of subcontractors who ignore collective labor agreements. The result? Workers end up in precarious jobs with poor wages and working conditions. We cannot allow the so-called free market to destroy the rights of our workers or our public services. Equal rights for all workers now.”

Left MEP Anthony Smith (La France Insoumise, France) :In the capitalist organisation of work, subcontracting is a practice which reduces employers’ responsibility and, conversely, increases the exploitation of workers. There is a need to extend the number of companies subject to the European directive ‘Due diligence’. Let’s listen to the trade unions and adopt a new regulation on subcontracting chains. This is a matter of urgency. “

Fighting for EU Farmers and Agricultural Workers: Improving Conditions and Mental Well-Being

The EU-Mercosur trade agreement, concluded on 6 December behind closed doors in an undemocratic process without consultation of the European Parliament, constitutes an unprecedented power grab, is not only one the greatest environmental catastrophes but will put EU farmers at a severe disadvantage. The deal’s lack of a “mirror clause”, ensuring Mercosur’s production standards match those of the EU, ensures that industrial farms in Mercosur countries can use pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones banned in Europe. These products will be subject to less stringent inspection, running the risk of allowing harmful products to enter EU markets, undermining public health safeguards.

Workers in both regions will suffer. European farmers and food workers face job losses due to cheap imports, while labour conditions in Mercosur’s agribusiness sector remain exploitative, with minimal protections for wages, safety, or unionisation. 

Instead of advancing ecological and social justice, it entrenches corporate power and deepens inequalities. The Left, alongside farmers, environmentalists, and human rights advocates, will continue to challenge this deal

The Left calls for:

  • Better implementation of the social conditionality of the CAP
  • To stop the EU-MERCOSUR deal
  • For a motion of no confidence in the European Commission and the Commission President

Left MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (Independant, Ireland): “We are about to make a decision that’s going to punish dairy farmers in Brazil to benefit dairy farmers in Europe. We are going to punish suckler farmers in Ireland and the rest of Europe to benefit beef farmers in the rest of Mercosur. How is that helping anyone’s mental health?
Go against Mercosur, increase the budget and make sure farmers get a good price for their living.”

Related Meps

Li Andersson

Vasemmistoliitto

Leïla Chaibi

La France Insoumise

Rudi Kennes

Parti du Travail de Belgique / Partij van de Arbeid van België

Anthony Smith

La France Insoumise

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan – Independent

Agriculture and fisheries & Economic Justice & Trade & Transparency ·

The Left calls for motion of no-confidence against the European Commission

Consumer rights and food safety & Environment & European Union & Trade ·

EU-Mercosur agreement devastating news for European farmers and EU climate commitments

Economic Justice & Rights & liberties ·

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