Fundació Catalunya Europa

The April Café Europa has opened its virtual doors with a notable presence: the general secretaries of CCOO and UGT, Javier Pacheco and Camil Ros, respectively. With the approach of May 1, the conversation has focused on labor demands in a context that included the upcoming Catalan and European elections.

With slogans such as "Work less, work better" from UGT and "For full employment, decent wages and a roof for all" from CCOO, the need for a more forceful socio-labor agenda within the framework of integration has become clear. European. There has been debate about how the new Parliament and the new European Commission have prioritized issues such as security and strategic autonomy, but questions have been raised about whether this has left enough room to address citizen needs such as housing and working conditions.

Camil Ros has highlighted the role of unionism especially and the unity of action and social dialogue that has guaranteed in recent years the partial revocation of the labor reform and the increase in the interprofessional minimum wage. Now it is necessary to move towards reducing the working day. He recalled that, as Lula says, the welfare state should be considered heritage of humanity.

Javier Pacheco has highlighted that the main objective of European unionism must be to stop the escalation of the extreme right in the EU, preventing the European People's Party from making an alliance with the extreme right. He has also highlighted the challenges posed by the technological battle, demographics and climate change, and how the working classes are directly affected by these. He stressed that the role of unions must be to defend them and appealed to the need for a new social contract that has decent work as one of its pillars.

Some viewers have expressed concern about the growth of the far-right in Europe, referring to recent warnings from leaders such as Macron about the danger it poses to the EU. It has been pointed out that, despite seeing examples such as Meloni in Italy, which has demonstrated adaptation to the institutions and respect for the Union, it is necessary to maintain vigilant concern.

Another prominent issue has been the need to modify the EU treaties before carrying out new enlargements. It has been raised whether this modification should be directed towards a more federal governance model and, if so, in what sense and what type of federalism would have been proposed. Although the unions have not expressed a specific position during the event, these issues have opened the debate on the future of European integration and its governance structure.

Before ending the debate, as is usual in each installment of Cafè Europa, we took the opportunity to recommend Anna Pacheco's book "Estuve aquí y me acordé de nosotros", a book that analyzes how tourism has changed many cities, initially as an economic engine but now unsustainable. Focusing on the discrepancy between the luxury offered by luxury hotels and the labor realities of their workers, and using a combination of field anthropology, chronicle and essay, he explores the more uncomfortable aspects of tourism and reflects on the leisure in a post-capitalist future.