Some 100 economists, including Frenchman Thomas Piketty, support the demonstration organized on Tuesday 1er October, in Brussels, by trade unionists from nine European countries who intend to obtain a revision of social rules for public procurement. These contracts concluded by public authorities with private companies currently represent 2,000 billion euros, or some 14% of the gross domestic product of the European Union.
Federated by Union Network International-Europa (UNI), an organization which brings together 330 unions representing 7 million workers and is affiliated with the European Trade Union Confederation, the movement is demanding a “stop the race to the bottom” and improved working conditions, wages and collective bargaining for the millions of workers employed under these contracts.
Labor-intensive sectors such as cleaning, catering and security are particularly affected by current practices which, according to economists who support the movement, favor the lowest prices in calls for tender. And “create market conditions which allow bidders to ignore social criteria (…) essential for sustainable economic growth and quality jobs.”
The Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the importance of the role of certain categories of so-called “outsourced” workers. However, they remain perceived by public authorities and private companies “as mere cost drivers rather than crucial investments in health, safety and well-being”, deplore Mr. Piketty and his co-signatories. Among these we find the former Hungarian European Commissioner for Social Affairs Laszlo Andor and the German economist Isabella Weber, who sparked controversy in 2021 by pleading for a price control policy and who, in 2023, denounced the “ cupideflation”, namely inflation created, according to her, by firms taking advantage of their dominant role in the market to increase prices.
“Threat from a growing extreme right”
The British Ann Pettifor, known for having predicted the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the Italian Roberto Veneziani, professor at Queen Mary University of London, and the German Benjamin Braun, specialist in political economy, are among the others signatories.
They all insist on another dimension of the movement they support, namely the fact that many of the workers concerned are migrants, and mainly women, all “faced with the threat of a growing far right that uses its political power not only to oppose progressive economic policies but also to further stratify the labor market based on nationality, religion, gender and of sexual orientation ».
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Source: Lemonde
