Over a thousand people working in the cleaning, security and hospitality sectors from all over Europe gathered in Brussels on 1 October to call for changes to the EU's public procurement rules and demand decent working conditions and fair wages. The demonstration brought together essential workers from at least nine European countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Spain and Finland), as well as European trade unions. They are denouncing the "race to the bottom" for working conditions and calling for reforms to the European directive on public procurement (the contracting of private firms by public authorities to deliver goods and services) that "strengthen collective bargaining, improve working conditions and guarantee quality services to citizens."
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.