Sharan Burrow

Sharan Burrow is general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

Jobs and a just transition can deliver climate ambition

by Sharan Burrow on 9th November 2021

As COP26 continues, global social ambition will have to match that for the climate to secure a liveable world for all.

For workers, another year of living dangerously

by Sharan Burrow on 5th July 2021

Workers have stood on the frontline of the pandemic, but the ITUC Global Rights Index documents an anti-worker agenda.

Vaccine nationalism won’t defeat the pandemic

by Sharan Burrow on 23rd February 2021

International co-operation is vital to make vaccination, as a public good, available to all.

A new social contract

by Sharan Burrow on 24th June 2020

The 2020 ITUC Global Rights Index exposes the failings of the world’s economic model—a new social contract can help us build a new one.

UN treaty on business and human rights vital for economic and social justice

by Sharan Burrow on 28th October 2019

How can transnational corporations be held to account in a world of nation states? A binding UN treaty would be an important step.

WSI policy brief: the formula for a social Europe

The strengthening of the social dimension of the EU is back on the agenda of European politics. The European Pillar of Social Rights, the revision of the Posted Workers Directive and the initiative for a European minimum wage are interpreted by some as a turning point. However, the road to a more social Europe is still very long. Against that background, this paper formulates a social Europe thus: social minimum standards plus a reconfiguration of the internal market and economic and monetary union in a manner compatible with the pillars of the European social model.

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Two scenarios for sustainable welfare: new ideas for an eco-social contract

More and more nation-states are committing to net-zero carbon by 2050 at the latest, but none has faced up to the transformation of economies, societies and lives this will entail. This paper considers two scenarios for sustainable welfare and discusses the implications for incomes, jobs and welfare states. The first is the Green New Deal framework to decarbonise the economy while addressing the distributional and welfare issues involved. Expanded public provision of ‘essentials’ would be a necessary social component. The second goes further to counteract runaway private consumption by building an economy of egalitarian sufficiency with ceilings to income, wealth and consumption. This would require further labour-market and welfare-state interventions. The paper provides a framework for these two approaches and identifies policy options on jobs and incomes.

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Living, working and Covid-19 (update April 2021): mental health and trust decline across EU as pandemic enters another year

The third round of Eurofound's Living, working and Covid-19 e-survey, fielded in February and March 2021, sheds light on the social and economic situation of people across Europe following nearly a full year of living with restrictions. The report analyses the main findings and tracks developments and trends across the 27 EU member states since the survey was first launched in April 2020. It pinpoints issues that have surfaced over the course of the pandemic, such as increased job insecurity due to the threat of job loss, decline in mental wellbeing, erosion of recent gains in gender equality, fall in trust vis-à-vis institutions, deterioration of work–life balance and growth of vaccine hesitancy. The results of the survey highlight the need for a holistic approach to support all the groups hit hard by the crisis, to prevent them from falling further behind.

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Discover the new issue of the Progressive Post!

Social rights for platform workers, fiscal-rules reform and EU enlargement, as well as the challenges and opportunities for social democrats in the post-pandemic context, are the main topics of the latest Progressive Post magazine.

After more than a year of the pandemic, we are in a crucial political moment: policy decisions made now will drive reforms and sustainable growth in the years to come. For progressives to take ownership of these topics, this issue of the Progressive Post analyses some of these opportunities.

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