On the agreement between some trade unions and employers union. No to flexibility in the name of Covid. Let's strengthen class-oriented trade union currents.

In order to supposedly deal with absences due to the pandemic, the employers have concluded an agreement with the CSC (Christian trade union) and the CGSLB (liberal trade union) on more flexibility (the FGTB - left trade union - said no), which means more exploitation for the workers. While the employers have already benefited from the covid unemployment system - workers lost wages and the state supported part of the wages - they will now be able to more easily use extra staff in companies, including temporary unemployed (who will keep the status of temporary unemployed and the reduced pay), temporary workers, pensioners, student jobbers and asylum seekers.

It is time to stop the Pandora's box that has been open for too long.It is a trend towards the erosion of the open-ended contract and the fixed working time that has been going on since the 1980s, when the CCT (collective agreement) 42 introduced the principle of flexibility.

This flexibility, adopted in the name of Covid, is part of a wider project of the employers on a European scale against workers' rights. Thus, in a statement of 3 January 2022, the Communist Workers' Party of Spain analysed the new labour reform adopted by the social-democratic government in consultation with the employers and the main trade unions. The new labour law reforms economic unemployment for more flexibility demanded by the employers. This flexicurity, encouraged by the European Union, within the framework of the 750 billion euro "covid" recovery fund, called "NextGenerationEU", was approved in Spain in a social pact signed by the trade union leaderships and which reinforces the role of the state as guarantor of the survival of the monopolies and organiser of the precariousness of workers. Whether in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium or elsewhere, capital through its institutions such as the European Union is on the offensive everywhere. It wants to apply the "Greek treatment" to us, to crush the workers and the social beneficiaries for the greater profit of the multinationals.

These social pacts are a step backwards for the workers, let's strengthen the unions that oppose this regressive policy and let's push for action. Let us strengthen the currents of class struggle against capitalism.

25th January 2022

PB of the CC of the Communist Party of Belgium (PCB-CPB)