May 8th 2021
6:00 pm
Europe depends on workers moving. Whether they are making deliveries, harvesting fruits and vegetables, caring for elderly people, working in construction, lawyers, doctors, researchers or in many other kinds of work. People who move to a country in Europe are essential to the wellbeing of everyone.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed vulnerabilities of these workers that preexisted the health crisis: mobile workers are more at risk of exploitation, less likely to be well represented by trade unions and national authorities, and have many specific needs when it comes to information, to social protection and access to health services, to secure housing and the possibility of crossing borders to care for their families.
Now in times of the Covid-19 pandemic it is time to move on from precarious Europe: the Social Pillar must ensure fair, decent and safe worker mobility in the EU. The EU Social Summit in Porto will be an important occasion for the European Union to commit to building a Europe in which no one falls between the gaps, and show that it has learnt from a decade of crisis that indecent, insecure and underpaid work creates vulnerabilities for the whole society.
European Alternatives and Another Europe Is Possible gather together migrant workers, workers’ collectives, trade unions and NGOs fighting for the rights of migrant workers from inside and outside the EU.
Together we not only want to articulate problems and demands, but also formulate policy recommendations to strengthen the rights of migrant workers.
Join our online event series to draft our open letter to the EU Commission.
The first event focuses on “Delivery Workers in the Platform Economy”, the second on “Agricultural Workers in the Food Industry” and the third on “Care Workers in the Health Sector”.
With:
Joanna Bronowicka (Polish sociologist, political activist & former Director of the Centre for Internet & Human Rights at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder)
Orry Mittenmayer (Co-founder of the “Liefern am Limit” campaign & Union Organizer at Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten)
Henry Lopez (General Secretary of the Independent Workers of Great Britain Union)
Joanna Bronowicka (Polish sociologist, political activist & former Director of the Centre for Internet & Human Rights at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder)
Orry Mittenmayer (Co-founder of the “Liefern am Limit” campaign & Union Organizer at Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten)
Henry Lopez (General Secretary of the Independent Workers of Great Britain Union)
Moderated by Niccolò Milanese (director of European Alternatives)
ABOUT WORKERS WITHOUT BORDERS
“Workers Without Borders” is a research and advocacy project of European Alternatives, investigating the labour struggles of migrant workers inside and outside the EU and seeking direct contact between workers’ collectives, trade unions and workers on the one hand, and authorities, governments, the EU Commission and policy makers at the European level on the other.
This activity is part of the Assemblies of Solidarity organised by Citizens Takeover Europe.
The project is funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) and by the European Union.
Go to event page
Organised by CTOE