| Full name | Pan-European Regional Council |
|---|---|
| Founded | March 19, 2007 |
| Members | 85 million |
| Affiliation | ITUC |
| Key people | John Monks, general secretary Mikhail Shmakov, president |
| Office location | Brussels, Belgium |
| Country | International |
| Website | www |
The Pan-European Regional Council (PERC) is a European trade union organization within the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). It includes 87 national trade union centres with a total membership of over 85 million. PERC also works closely with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and currently John Monks is general secretary of both organizations.
A trade union, also called a labour union or labor union (US), is an association of workers in a particular trade, industry, or company created for the purpose of securing improvement in pay, benefits, working conditions or social and political status through collective bargaining and working conditions through the increased bargaining power wielded by creation of a monopoly of the workers. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment". This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies.
The International Trade Union Confederation is the world's largest trade union federation. It was formed on 1 November 2006, out of the merger of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the World Confederation of Labour (WCL). The Founding Congress of the ITUC was held in Vienna and was preceded by the dissolution congresses of both the ICFTU and the WCL. The ITUC has three main regional organizations – the Asia-Pacific Regional Organization, the American Regional Organization, and the African Regional Organization. The Trade Union Development Cooperation Network (TUDCN) is an initiative of the ITUC whose main objective is to bring the trade union perspective into international development policy debates and improve the coordination and effectiveness of trade union development cooperation activities.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is the major trade union organisation representing workers at European level. European integration has reinforced the EU’s role in economic, employment and social policy throughout the 28 Member States. The ETUC is a European social partner, which means that the European Commission consults it when developing social and economic policies. It also negotiates autonomous agreements and work programmes with European employers. And it coordinates the national and sectoral policies of its affiliates on social and economic matters, particularly in the framework of the EU institutional processes, including European economic governance and the EU Semester
According to the organization Constitution, the PERC:
will work to promote the strategies, priorities and policies of the ITUC and will seek to contribute to social development, the consolidation of democracy and to respect for human and workers’ rights in the region. Promotion of trade union action, and representation of workers’ interests through the strengthening of the trade union movement and support for bilateral and multilateral cooperation, will be central objectives of the Council. [1]
