Comrades,  

Join us on Friday to help make one thing clear: Workers’ rights are not up for negotiation. 

This Friday at 12pm we will be gathering outside Cork City Council (home to a liaison office of the European Commission) to firmly reject a new proposal by the European Commission.  

The rally is organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and the Cork Council of Trade Unions (CCTU), and comes at a very critical moment.  

Very soon, the European Commission is expected to publish a proposal led by Commissioner Michael McGrath on what is being called a new “28th Company Regime”.  

While it is being presented as a tool to support start-ups and innovation, behind it lies a serious threat.

This plan could allow companies to pick and choose a special EU rulebook, allowing them to dodge European and national labour law and collective agreements. That would mean that companies could operate in Ireland but not fully respect the standards that trade unions have fought for, weakening collective agreements, and eroding protections that generations of trade unionists fought hard to win. 

This proposal has the potential to carry very real dangers for workers’ rights and trade unions.  

Why this matters to every single worker 

Under this new regime, companies could try to: 

• Get around Irish and European labour law. 
• Weaken job protections. 
• Delay or avoid enforcement. 
• Undermine the basic principle that workers in the same country should be protected by the same rules. 

We must also strongly reject the idea being presented that workers’ rights stand in the way of innovation.  

After Friday’s rally, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) will host an information briefing, in the Imperial Hotel, to outline what is at stake and how we can all respond together. Esther Lynch, the general secretary of the ETUC, along with a delegation, will present at the information event. 

In Cork alone, there are over 14,000 people employed in the pharmaceutical sector, and if this proposal is implemented it will have serious consequences for our members who work in the education, health and the public sector too. Every one of us has a stake in this fight! 

This rally and briefing will be an opportunity to link local action with a Europe-wide movement defending workers’ rights. 

Join us on Friday for a powerful show of solidarity to make sure that the voices of working people are heard loud and clear. 

In solidarity,  

Kevin, Mehak and Aisling. 

The Fórsa Campaigns Team.