Braunschweig – Christiane Benner, Second Chair of IG Metall, has called for good working conditions for all employees. Referring to the May 1 slogan “More Time for Solidarity,” the union leader pointed to the growing inequality in income and wealth. The gap between high and low incomes is widening ever further. The divide in the labor market is also growing, as one in two workers is now employed only on a temporary basis. “Atypical employment relationships are becoming increasingly typical: temporary agency work, contract work, and unpaid internships have long been part of everyday working life and are establishing a culture of insecurity,” Benner said at the May 1 rally on Sunday in Braunschweig. Now and in the future, he said, strong unions are needed that can halt the downward spiral in wages through collective bargaining agreements and shape good working conditions within the framework of co-determination.
Looking ahead to the future of work, Benner warned employers against “trying to bring the dinosaurs back to life through digitalization.” IG Metall will not stand idly by while employees are expected to be available around the clock, while co-determination is undermined by service contracts and flexible forms of employment, and while work is outsourced in the legal vacuum of the internet via crowdworking. “We will not accept cost-cutting at the expense of workers or the replacement of regular employment with precarious work. We do not want an ‘Amazonization’ of the world of work, nor do we want legal vacuums like those in Silicon Valley,” emphasized the Second Chair. “Whether in the factory, the office, or the cloud: We want to shape a humane and socially just digital world of work.” Technological progress must translate into social progress.
Benner also called for greater justice and solidarity from European policymakers. She warned that a lost generation is growing up in Europe. “The scale of youth unemployment in Europe remains alarming. Nearly one in four young people in Europe is unemployed. In Greece, Spain, and Italy, as many as one in two young people is affected,” said the union leader. She appealed to the European Commission and national governments to step up investment in education, employment, and infrastructure. A change in policy is necessary, she said. It is inhumane, she added, to view cuts made at the expense of workers, the unemployed, the sick, and the elderly as necessary structural reforms. “Europe must not merely be a community that serves the interests of banks; it must be a community that protects its people,” Benner said.
For more information, visit: http://www.igmetall.de/presse
