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Social news continues to be abundant, giving rise to numerous articles in the media throughout the year. Even if the Lëtzebuerger Journal has chosen to take a step back from the events and information already covered on a daily basis by the daily newspapers and audiovisual media, this does not prevent it from tackling these social issues in depth, as the work of Camille Frati shows.
Trade unions, employers, demands, negotiations… A very familiar vocabulary that is often in the news every year. Journalists call them "evergreens". But it would be a fundamental mistake to relegate social issues to a repetitive ballet in which everyone just plays the role assigned to them.
Take the social elections held to elect employees' representatives in companies and at the Chamber of Employees: yes, this election takes place every five years and doesn't seem to hold any suspense apart from a possible change in the balance of power between the different unions. But the impact of this electoral exercise is multiplied on industrial relations in the coming years in the thousands of companies and within the Chamber of Employees. That's what I felt strongly about in the context of this year's social elections: not to stop at small talk, but to offer an overview of the trade unions today. Their strengths, their weaknesses, their members too, in an article packed with statistics.
An in-depth analysis that allowed me to question the immutable truths that are presented about trade unionism in Luxembourg, a movement that is no longer spared from the erosion of membership like our neighbours, but which remains dynamic and determined. And it's worth exploring because behind these social struggles lie the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of workers. What happens if I have a road accident on my way to work? Can my employer ask me to work at the weekend without pay or bonuses? Can he or she refuse me parental leave?
In the same way, I have dissected the stumbling blocks to respect for the social rights of cross-border workers in Luxembourg, in order to take the debate further than mere whining about road congestion caused by cars with licence plates that carry the letters F, B or D. Border workers who demand justice because their child has been refused a study grant or because they no longer receive child benefit for their spouse's children, whom they house, feed and clothe all year round – these border workers are not showing ingratitude or venality, they uphold their rights, as the Court of Justice of the European Union has emphasised in a number of rulings, and as the social policy experts from the MoveS European network reminded us at a seminar in Luxembourg last June.
"Ultimately, the important rights are the ones we exercise every day: can my employer ask me to work at the weekend without payback?"
The end of the year once again saw the return yet another evergreen: pensions, by which I mean the viability of the pension system, to which the Inspectorate General of Social Security draws attention in its interim report every five years. Especially as this year the government has decided to launch a national debate on the issue, stretching coverage of the subject from this summer and the positions of the unions and employers until next spring, when a reform will most likely come out of the hat of the experts commissioned – or piloted, depending on your point of view – by the Ministry of Social Security. Once again, the matter seems to have been decided, and we have the impression of seeing the same drama at work again, with the unions on one side and the employers on the other.
But in my articles I wanted to dig deeper, to dissect the arguments and figures presented by one side or the other, whether through interviews or graphs. The aim is to give a different perspective on the issue, to put the positions of the various parties into perspective. For example, what has the greatest impact on the profile of pensioners: the 1.9% who receive a pension of more than 7,000 euros a month or the 30% who receive less than 1,000 euros a month?
Behind the debate on pensions and this battle over statistics lies nothing less than our right to receive a pension that allows us to live in dignity. Indeed, the question arises as to what form the pension of tomorrow or the day after will take, with or without the introduction of a supplementary pension component as envisaged, with all due restraint, by insurers.
It is this analysis, this in-depth research, that we bring you throughout the year in the Lëtzebuerger Journal. In 2024 as in 2025.
