In a year marked by the global commercial war unleashed by the US president, Donald Trump, the workers around the world claim to be heard and have returned to the streets to claim salary improvements and the protection of their rights in this May 1.
“We are mobilized by peace and social justice. We are also mobilized to say that we want to put the workers in the center of the debate” because since Trump’s arrival at the White House “we are told about war, debt, immigration and social issues are totally hidden,” said Sophie Binet, general secretary of the General Confederation of Workers (CGT) of France.
Binet headed the march in Paris together with the general secretary of the European Trade Unions (CES), Esther Lynch, the main of the 269 demonstrations throughout the country, where the leftist parties have claimed the State intervention together in the Arcelor Mittal Siderurgical group, which this week has announced the suppression of 636 jobs in France.
In Germany about 310,000 people took to the streets in different cities to demonstrate for salary increases and better working conditions, according to the German union federation, which brings together 5.6 million affiliates.
The largest economy of the old continent has been in recession for two years, with GDP contractions in 2023 and 2024, and the country’s authorities foresee a stagnation by 2025, largely due to the effects of the commercial war.
In Spain the day was marked by the claim of the reduction of the working day to 37.5 hours per week, which will arrive at the Congress of Deputies next week, with thousands of people demonstrating in different cities.
The two main Spanish unions, General Union of Workers (UGT) and Obreras Commissions (CCOO), demand that the different parties respect a project that arrives at Parliament after a social dialogue with the Government.
At the international level, UGT and CCOO asked to “look up” and also talk about what they have considered “the greatest reactionary risk that Spain, Europe and the world have lived since the end of World War II.”
In line with that warning, hundreds of workers from several United Nations agencies demonstrated in Geneva before the UN European headquarters to protest the staff cuts that many international organizations are suffering, aggravated after the withdrawal of much of the help of their main taxpayer, the US government.
“We are in a very difficult and unfortunate situation, in which not only the governments of the world are being attacked but also the UN and its agencies,” said the Secretary General of the International of Public Services (PSI), Daniel Bertossa.
Meanwhile, the main Italy unions demonstrated in several parts of the country to demand measures that guarantee greater security in the workplace.
Its objective has been to denounce what they consider “a bleeding” and “a massacre” in the jobs, because in 2024 the dead were 1,090, 5% more than the previous year, with an average of almost three a day, according to official data.
In Greece the unions opted for a 24 -hour strike to claim salary and labor improvements, which has led to interrupt transport on rail and ships, tied in the ports just in a period in which hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the country.
Some 7,000 people, according to the Police, have participated in Athens in the demonstration convened by the main unions of the public and private sectors of the country, Gsee and Adedy, to request salary increases that allow citizens to “live with dignity” in the midst of a “unpublished” basic products.
Meanwhile, several thousand university students and affiliates to the five main Serbia unions have demanded from the Government labor improvements, such as the four -day day, and measures against the corruption of which they accuse the president of the country, the nationalist Aleksandar Vucic.
The university students lead the wave of anti -government protests that began six months ago, after the collapse of the ceiling of a train station in which 16 people died.
The initial demand for political and judicial responsibilities for the incident has evolved to a complaint of what many citizens consider a growing authoritarianism and corruption of the Vucic government, the strong man of Serbian politics since 2012.
The tranquility was the general tonic of the day throughout Europe with the exception of Istanbul, where at least 212 people were arrested, according to a lawyers association, when they tried to participate in a concentration for May 1 in the Taksim square, emblematic for the Turkish but vetoed movement for demonstrations by the Islamist government.
With EFE information.
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