Building on the Congress mandate and the Strategic Plan 2025–2029, the Action Plan sets out a clear, unified framework for all BTUP-related work. It aims to reinforce unions across Europe’s transforming industries with a focus on organising, recruitment, retention and active member engagement and align all activity under a common, coherent structure.
The Plan’s core priorities include learning, networking, and practical workplace-level implementation. It particularly targets key sectors such as clean technologies, battery production and supply chains, and the circular economy — sectors where industrial transformation and green transition present both enormous challenges and opportunities for workers.
“This is more than a strategy — it is our collective commitment to build a strong organising culture across all affiliates and regions,” says Isabelle Barthes, industriAll Europes deputy general secretary.
Spotlight on “Organising Champions”
One of the priorities is launching a Europe-wide spotlight on Organising Champions: real, on-the-ground stories of successful organising efforts from different regions and sectors.
They aim to inspire affiliates, encourage peer learning and strengthen the organising culture by showing what can be achieved. Workplace-level initiatives will be prioritised because union strength is built from the ground up.
From Plan to Action: The Road Ahead
Implementation will be led by the BTUP Task Force together with the Secretariat. In the coming weeks and months, the focus will be on:
- launching the Organising Champions stories and the organiser learning network;
- rolling out the three main Action Lines: workplace organising in battery and supply-chain industries; building organising capacity in clean and circular sectors; and strengthening digital outreach and social-listening;
- activating horizontal strands, including youth organising, white-collar organising, and embedding organising work into European Works Councils and company-policy structures.
This structured, multi-layered approach aims to embed organising into every level of union work, from grassroots to strategic policy and to ensure that BTUP’s efforts deliver real benefits for workers across Europe.
Mika Häkkinen, Chair of the BTUP Task Force, welcomed EXCOM’s decision:
“We all need to do our homework and map where we stand in terms of strength. Organised workplaces are the foundation of union power and we must be honest about where we are strong and where we are weak. And yes: we also need to allocate resources towards organising if we want to grow.”
Drawing on his experience as an organiser in Finland, Häkkinen stressed the importance of anticipation and preparedness — especially in the face of rising populism and growing threats to workers’ rights.
A Call to Affiliates
“With this Action Plan we are again stepping up. We know how important it is to have strong unions on the ground in times when deregulation and non-democratic forces are reducing workers’ influence across Europe. But workers are united to fight back and this plan strengthens our collective capacity to do so. We call on our affiliates to join the expanding network of organising unions – because our collective power depends on every union strengthening its base.” Highlighted Isabelle Barthes.
As BTUP moves from adoption to activation, the coming months will show whether this renewed commitment can translate into stronger organising, better engagement and renewed union power across Europe’s transforming industrial sectors.