In Denmark, it is already too late. The postal service has ended after 400 years and with it 1,500 jobs. Letters are now delivered at high cost by a single private logistics company with a monopoly over critical infrastructure. Danish residents, especially the 271,000 digitally exempt individuals dependent on physical letters, will suffer the consequences.
The EU’s plan for a so-called “28th regime” could make unfair competition the norm at the expense of Europe’s working people. Just like the Bolkestein Directive, it risks becoming a free pass for companies to bypass national collective bargaining agreements, union rights, and social protections.
Today is the last day for EU countries need to transpose the minimum wage directive. So what’s the reality on the ground?
As Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos just reclaimed the title of the richest person on Earth, its workers cannot even take a bathroom break under the pressure of meeting inhumane performance targets.
The European Commission has demonstrated great ambition in ensuring public money supports the green transition. Now, it should use this experience to also make it socially just.
The best protection against poverty is employment. However, at the European level, this principle seems to be failing. It is not only the quantity of jobs that matter, but also fair wages.
Amazon is leading an assault on workers’ rights in Europe, using big data and surveillance to crush efforts by workers to improve their conditions. It’s symptomatic of a climate of impunity around breaches of privacy that benefit corporations over workers.