TEEU urges members to vote NO to Lisbon Treaty

The national executive of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union is advising members to vote ‘No’ in the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. General Secretary Designate Eamon Devoy says, “The TEEU favours a social Europe but unfortunately recent key judgements by the European Court of Justice show that the pendulum has swung against workers’ rights and in favour of big business. In the circumstances it would be foolish to provide the institutions of the European Union with more power.“The judgements in the Laval and Viking disputes accepted workers had the right to organise in unions only to negate its value by saying they could not undertake industrial action where it conflicted with the provision of goods and services, regardless of the social consequences. In the recent Ruffert case the Court found that a Polish subcontractor operating in Germany was entitled to pay his workers less than half the agreed minimum wage for the construction sector, because the right to provide unrestricted services took priority over collective wage agreements.

http://www.teeu.ie/news/show.asp?id=219