09 October 2014   Thousands of people took to the streets in Milan on Wednesday to protest against the government plans to loosen employment protection. The demonstration took place during the EU Employment Summit. "We are ready to lay siege to the factories, to prevent Renzi’s labour market reform from being enforced in Parliament," said Maurizio Landini, head of the metalworkers' union FIOM, who led the demonstration in Milan. The summit discussed the issues of faltering economic recovery and high unemployment.

IndustriAll Europe supported the protests. "Continuous austerity has made this crisis become unbearable. Juncker and the European Heads of State must finally pave the way for investment", said Ulrich Eckelmann, General Secretary of industriAll European Trade Union. Above all, it is young people who are being affected by the job slump in the euro zone. In August 2014, 3.3 million people under the age of 25 were without a job. Spain and Greece are the countries most affected by this, where one in two young people is without work. The impact of the "Youth Guarantee", which was passed in April 2013, is materialising, but slowly. Back then, EU governments had promised each one of the over five million unemployed young people either a job, or an apprenticeship, within 4 months. However, the implementation of the Youth Guarantee has all but stalled and in many regions demand dramatically exceeds supply.

http://www.industriall-europe.eu/news/list2.asp?stid=244