{"id":6000,"date":"2022-02-16T11:21:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T11:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/weakening-democracy-at-work-fuels-inequality-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2022-02-16T11:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T11:21:28","slug":"weakening-democracy-at-work-fuels-inequality-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/weakening-democracy-at-work-fuels-inequality-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fb-video\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNIEuropa\/videos\/1412503245876633\/\" data-width=\"800\" data-show-text=\"false\">\r\n<blockquote class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNIEuropa\/videos\/1412503245876633\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNIEuropa\/videos\/1412503245876633\/\">Explainer: weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe<\/a>\r\n<p>New report alert ?? Finding: the weakening of collective bargaining is a key driver behind increasing income inequality in Europe. Our very own Stan De Spiegelaere takes you through the key findings \u25b6\ufe0f Our new research indicates that the weakening of collective bargaining is a key driver behind increasing income inequality in Europe. Collective bargaining is the main vehicle for workers to claim higher salaries. As such, policies that have weakened collective bargaining have overwhelmingly resulted in income being diverted away from working people and towards the top 10% highest incomes instead. The levels of inequality and collective bargaining are compared for all EU countries as well as the UK and Norway. \u201cThis report shows that inequality is a deliberate policy choice. When policy-makers exclude working people from having a say at work, they are taking aim at shared prosperity. The tools for workers to claim a fair share of the wealth they create are dismantled. This money is redistributed upwards to be captured by shareholders instead,\u201d explained Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa.<\/p>\r\n\r\nPosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UNIEuropa\/\">UNI Europa<\/a> on Wednesday, February 16, 2022<\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">New research indicates that the weakening of collective bargaining is a key driver behind increasing income inequality in Europe. Collective bargaining is the main vehicle for workers to claim higher salaries. As such, policies that have weakened collective bargaining have overwhelmingly resulted in income being diverted away from working people and towards the top 10% highest incomes instead.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">In a report entitled <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CollBargaining_Inequality-1.pdf\"><i><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">The planned obsolescence of Social Europe<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">, the levels of inequality and collective bargaining are compared for all EU countries as well as the UK and Norway.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cThis report shows that inequality is a deliberate policy choice. When policy-makers exclude working people from having a say at work, they are taking aim at shared prosperity. The tools for workers to claim a fair share of the wealth they create are dismantled. This money is redistributed upwards to be captured by shareholders instead,\u201d explained Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">Policies that restrain people\u2019s capacity to bargain collectively have proliferated in countries where inequality rates have grown most. This is the case in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany after 1990, Greece after 2008, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Poland and the UK.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2173 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uni-europa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/DE-UK.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1310\" height=\"411\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">Meanwhile, countries that have maintained collective bargaining coverage at a high level, have kept inequality at bay too. Examples are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2172 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uni-europa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/02\/AU-BE.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1320\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 8.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif\">\u201cThis is a question of defending democracy. People will lose trust in a system that is rigged to favour the rich. The essence of democracy is not just the freedom to speak\u2014it is the right to have a say. This principle must be embedded at every level of decision-making. Democracy is not just voting every few years but it is also people having a say over decisions that shape their everyday working lives,\u201d said Oliver Roethig.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>Read the report: <a href=\"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/CollBargaining_Inequality-1.pdf\"><i>The planned obsolescence <\/i><\/a><i>of <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uni-europa.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2022%2F02%2FCollBargaining_Inequality.pdf&amp;data=04%7C01%7Ctheo.morrissey%40uniglobalunion.org%7C70654815914f484c3add08d9f0cdb93b%7C8359b2e0aed64063acb178f9effecd0a%7C0%7C0%7C637805589156223769%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&amp;sdata=MRWTN3iQlpGtQjyVlaSzYqNlTaHjCpdPY%2FtarOAhFKY%3D&amp;reserved=0\"><i>Social Europe<\/i><\/a><\/p>\r\n<div id=\"ConnectiveDocSignExtentionInstalled\" data-extension-version=\"1.0.4\">\u00a0<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Explainer: weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe New report alert ?? Finding: the weakening of collective bargaining is a key driver behind increasing income inequality in Europe. Our very own Stan De Spiegelaere takes you through the key findings \u25b6\ufe0f Our new research indicates that the weakening of collective bargaining is a key<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6002,"template":"","categories":[41,119,120],"global-issues":[],"sectors":[],"cross-sector-groups":[],"workers-rights":[],"regions":[84],"topics":[53,55],"class_list":["post-6000","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-reports","category-research-publications","regions-uni-europa","topics-eu-affairs","topics-multinationals"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/weakening-democracy-at-work-fuels-inequality-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Explainer: weakening democracy at work fuels inequality in Europe New report alert ?? 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