The EFBWW Congress has just kicked off. 300 participants representing the voices of 77 trade unions and 36 countries. The 14th EFBWW Congress comes at a time of big challenges in the political, economic, social and climate context. At the same time, trade unions are under great pressure. The rise of the far right and other populist political parties are a direct threat to democracy, solidarity and the trade union movement. For this reason, the slogan for EFBWW 14th Congress is Build together, fight together, win together – Together for a social and green Europe.
Kimmo Palonen, President of Rakennusliitto, and Tarja Filatov, Member of Finnish Parliament, addressed the issue represented by the current Finnish far-right government, which is undertaking several cuts to social welfare measures, targeting in particular employees.
Johan Lindholm, EFBWW President, urged trade unions to stay together in these moments where far-right movements and parties are taking over and attacking trade unions and workers. He reminded: an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.
Finally, Nikolaj Villumsen, MEP (The Left), who has been closely collaborating with EFBWW in particular on files such as asbestos and subcontracting, thanked the federation for years of good work together, which concluded with the latest victory on the asbestos directive.