Dear colleagues,
This is the first Newsletter of our network, European Lawyers for Workers. It includes invitations to our first plenary assembly and to our conference “6 Years of Austerity and the Impact on Collective Bargaining”, which will take place on 14th and 15th of November 2014 in Paris.
This Newsletter will be sent to the colleagues from France, Belgium, UK, Spain, Germany, and Sweden who have already submitted an application for membership of the ELW which has been provisionally accepted by the coordinating committee. We will also distribute it to quite a number of colleagues who, by attending the earlier conferences in Paris, Brussels and Berlin or as members of ELDH or national networks, showed their interest in ELW. We would like to invite those who have not yet applied, to submit an application for membership of our network (see our Founding Document and fill in the Application Form below).
In view of developments in the EU in the last years – politically and economically – characterised by massive attacks on labour law and collective bargaining, we believe it is very urgent to build the network of lawyers for the protection of workers’ rights across Europe. It is particularly important to disseminate information about cases in the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights. The ELW is committed to working closely with the trade unions.
We intend to publish a newsletter two or three times in the year and would welcome contributions from other colleagues.
Our intention is that each ELW conference will be organised in a different European State each year.
Hoping to see you in Paris in November !
Best regards
The ELW Coordinating Committee
Sebastian Baunack (Berlin), Jan Buelens (Antwerp), Mireille Jourdan (Brussels), Dr. Rüdiger Helm (München / Cape Town), John Hendy QC (London) Mechtild Kuby (Berlin), Thomas Schmidt (Düsseldorf), Michael Schubert (Freiburg), Jean Luc Wabant (Lille/Paris)