COP26 and our Winter Days | Editorial of the Secretary-General Klaus Heeger

Dear members, colleagues, friends and partners of CESI,

This week and next week, the COP26 will hopefully deliver results. Regardless of whether they will be deemed sufficient or not, the question is how we, as CESI, position ourselves.

In her draft discussion paper ‘Priorities of independent trade unions for socially fair green-digital transition processes in the European labour markets and economies’, Sara Rinaudo, Chairwoman of CESI’s Working Group on the Future of Work, states that “the transition processes that are needed to face the climate change, the digital revolution and the reoccurring social and economic crises need to be implemented taking the needs and rights of affected workers and people into consideration, guaranteeing both social justice and sustainable development.”

And indeed, this cannot be highlighted often and strongly enough: For economies to re-emerge from the Covid crisis while setting the pace for innovative and future–oriented green and digital societies, we must ensure that this green and digital twin transition leaves no one behind. It has to remain fair. Otherwise, it will fail. Otherwise, we will fail. Otherwise, our world as we know it will fail.

Economic, social and societal tensions will annihilate all efforts made. And professional, sectoral, regional, national and geopolitical competition may lead to a race to the bottom, not to the top; while we all know, that only united cross-border, cross-sector and cross-continent approaches may limit the extent of climate change.

That is why on the occasion of our next Winter Days in December, we have invited a wide range of experts and representatives from think tanks, trade unions, employer organisations, institutions and the civil society to debate on ways to ensure that our bounce-back from the pandemic aims at climate neutrality, digitalisation and social fairness alike.

We will debate on the social dimension to green-digital transitions, on how to help particularly affected sectors and groups of workers, and on what workers and their representatives need to be prepared for.

When discussing the topics to be dealt with in the Working Group on the Future of Work after Congress last December, Sara Rinaudo pointed out that in her opinion the tasks of trade unions will have to be much broader. They will not only include the unions‘ classical and traditional roles (workers´ representation, social dialogue and collective bargaining), but they will also have to embrace reflections, positionings and strategies on (sustainable) entrepreneurial, sectoral, regional and geostrategic competitiveness.

Yet competitiveness requires demand, and demand requires quality (and competitive prices) – and this again requires infrastructure, productivity, raw materials, and not least skilled workers. Trade unions will hence have to focus first on preserving (quality) jobs, second on guaranteeing smooth transitions, and third on contributing to create (new) competitive economic sectors and industries with (new) quality jobs.

A lot to think about and to be dealt with.

Please join us in the discussions at the Winter Days on December 2-3 and register now! Because all workers count.