Across Europe, industrial workers face restructuring, job cuts and plant closures. In automotive, chemicals and other strategic industries, uncertainty is growing, while workers are too often expected to pay the price.

Today’s actions sent a clear message to politicians and employers: Enough is enough. Europe needs investment, not deindustrialisation.

In Germany, IG Metall mobilised automotive workers at around 200 locations across the country. IndustriAll Europe General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling joined workers at the Opel rally in Rüsselsheim, bringing a message of European solidarity. Affiliates across Europe also stood with workers in Germany, with UILM, CCOO Industria, OS KOVO and VASAS among those showing their support, including through delegations travelling to Germany.

In Austria, PRO-GE and GPA organised their own action under the banner ‘Enough is Enough! Europe’s Industry, Europe’s Jobs, Our Future’. PRO-GE President Reinhold Binder and GPA Federal Managing Director Mario Ferrari stressed that recent crises have shown how vital a strong and stable industrial base is for Europe. Europe already has highly skilled and motivated workers. Political leaders and companies must now invest in European production and secure quality jobs here, rather than shifting them to other continents.

Speaking to workers in Rüsselsheim, Judith Kirton-Darling said:

“Workers cannot be expected to carry the cost of transformation while jobs disappear, plants come under threat and uncertainty grows. We are ready to build the future of Europe’s automotive industry, but companies and governments must invest in that future too – in our plants, in new technologies and, above all, in people.

“We cannot build the cars of tomorrow while destroying the jobs of today. And we will not allow workers to be played off against each other – plant against plant, country against country, worker against worker. What workers are fighting for in Germany today is a fight shared by industrial workers across Europe. Our strength is our solidarity, and across borders we stand together.”

Investment, not industrial decline

The Enough is Enough! campaign calls for a strong European industrial policy built on investment, quality jobs and a fair transition. Europe has the skilled workforce, knowledge and industrial capacity to build its future here.

‘Made in Europe’ must mean strengthening European production and value chains and creating quality jobs. Public money must come with social conditions. Companies receiving public support must invest and protect quality jobs, while respecting collective bargaining and workers’ rights.

Companies must also take responsibility. Global competition cannot become an excuse for permanent restructuring, underinvestment and job cuts while money that could be invested in plants, technologies and workers is handed to shareholders.

Workers are not standing in the way of transformation. Workers make transformation possible.

The mobilisation continues

Today is only the beginning.

On 7 October, industriAll Europe will organise a digital action day ahead of the critical Chemicals Alliance, putting the urgent situation facing Europe’s chemical industry and its workers firmly on the agenda.

On 9 November, the Enough is Enough! campaign continues with an action in Hungary, as trade unions step up their demand for investment, quality industrial jobs and a fair transformation. Further dates and locations will follow.

From around 200 locations across Germany to the action in Austria, and with solidarity reaching across borders, today’s mobilisation marks the start of a new wave of action by European industrial workers.

Workers across Europe are demanding a different industrial future – one built on investment and quality jobs, not closures, cuts and deindustrialisation. And today is only the beginning.