Jan Willem Goudriaan
@jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
1.7K followers 1.6K following 1.7K posts
General Secretary EPSU - European Public Service Union www.epsu.org ETUC - PSI People and Planet Before Profits Twitter/X @JW_Goudriaan
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jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Unions across Europe celebrated public service workers on 23 june 2025. With powerful messages of resistance to austerity and commercialisation. With actions for higher wages. Around the @epsu.bsky.social agenda
Txs.

@estherlynch.bsky.social
@labournetgermany.bsky.social
@unionnews.bsky.social
epsu.bsky.social
🎉 A big thank you to all EPSU affiliates!

Thousands of public service workers made their voices heard on #PSDay2025!

From Türkiye to Belgium, UK to Kazakhstan — from fire stations to hospitals, we said it loud: #NoToAusterity

🎥 Watch this powerful video👇🏾
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
UK unions @gmb.org.uk and @unitetheunion.bsky.social reach agreement with Birmingham city council on settling pay inequality claims of women being paid less than men

Millions will be transferred to the female workers in back pay

It pays to be union
@epsu.bsky.social
Revealed - how much Birmingham City Council has paid out in equal pay claims
Exclusive - the extent of Birmingham City Council's equal pay claims revealed
www.birminghammail.co.uk
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Belgian public service union @acod.bsky.social @cgspenseignement.bsky.social

announces national #strike for 25 November

Other unions considering as government seeks wage increases below inflation. Government wants to safe the rich from extra levy

@epsu.bsky.social
Reposted by Jan Willem Goudriaan
epsu.bsky.social
STRIKE DAY IN BELGIUM!

Belgian unions are taking to the streets once again - NGO workers too!

✊🏽 Today, Fair-CSOs are on strike against brutal Arizona measures - we're fighting for our wages, jobs, pensions, and public services.

#NoToAusterity!
Reposted by Jan Willem Goudriaan
epsu.bsky.social
EPSU is on the streets in Brussels today, standing with Belgian unions against the so-called ‘Arizona’ government and its austerity plans.

Austerity hurts workers. Austerity hurts public services.

We say: enough. ✊ #NoToAusterity
Reposted by Jan Willem Goudriaan
epsu.bsky.social
🧱 When communities need help, they’re the first to respond.

EPSU affiliates from Local & Regional Governments -from firefighters to municipal staff- stand in #solidarity with Belgian unions against #Arizona measures.

Because when public services are under attack, it’s everyone’s fight.
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Saterday 18th
➡️ NoKings protests in the US

Many unionists will join as he goes after jobs, health insurance and decent working conditions

Bad President for working people

Success to all
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
National demo @vakbondabvv.bsky.social @hetacv.bsky.social @aclvb.bsky.social @greenpeace.eu @eapneurope.bsky.social in Belgium against austerity and for social justice brings > 100.000 to streets of Brussels

Angry crowds as government goes after wages and pensions, leaving wealty alone
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
We support demand @etuc-ces.bsky.social to reject the proposal to weaken EU supply chain legislation

Business argues for simpler rules like 28th country regime but this is opposite: 27 different rules now

Very sad @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu has become head of corporate Europe

@epsu.bsky.social
etuc.org
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
There is a more public alternative developed by @ethz.ch and @epfl-ai-center.bsky.social called Apertus
A first test did not disappoint
You can try
publicai.co/chat

Note: It does run on AWS. When asked about this and possible future alternatives it did refer to public cloud services. Not bad.
A language model built for the public good
ETH Zurich and EPFL will release a large language model (LLM) developed on public infrastructure. Trained on the “Alps” supercomputer at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), the new LLM ma...
ethz.ch
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
I thought "People will already expect that their Meta AI interactions are being used for these personalisation purposes" is gross in many ways
- How do they know?
- And what about those who disagree ?
- Is this like the standard

We really need to get out of the dependency on for profit US TECH 1/
jathansadowski.com
What an unsurprising decision by corporations that desperately need to make money with AI. If every other company with a chatbot isn't already doing this, then expect them to be following Meta's lead soon. The chatbot is not your friend; it's a corporate listening device. www.ft.com/content/22f7...

	Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
	https://www.ft.com/content/22f7afc3-8ac0-4ca1-9877-fd3f8ddcc986?desktop=true&segmentId=7c8f09b9-9b61-4fbb-9430-9208a9e233c8#myft:notification:daily-email:content

	Meta will use conversations people have with its chatbots to personalise advertising and content across its platforms, in a sign of how tech companies plan to make money from artificial intelligence.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Wednesday said it would use the content of chats with its Meta AI to create advertising recommendations across its suite of apps.

“People will already expect that their Meta AI interactions are being used for these personalisation purposes,” said Christy Harris, privacy and data policy manager at Meta.
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
The Belgian national day of action against austerity and for social justice with #strike and national demo, gets #solidarity from German union @social.verdi.de

Different countries. Same struggle

Success to
@vakbondabvv.bsky.social
@hetacv.bsky.social
@aclvb.bsky.social
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
You can not deal with multinational companies operating across countries at only national level

Preventing workers to come together beyond borders weakens our power versus Capital, the bosses

Workers have nothing to expect from farright

@epsu.bsky.social
@etui.bsky.social
@etuc-ces.bsky.social
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
How the political parties voted on improvements to the European Works Council legislation mepwatch.eu/10/vote.html...

The extreme right voted against, denying workers the right to challenge the employers

Especially this example shows these parties are working for the bosses 1/

@epsu.bsky.social
Back to top
mepwatch.eu
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Protests of students and groups of workers continue in Serbia like of education workers who protest against temporary jobs and lack of respect for the law

And repression continues as well

Success to workers defending rights and decent jobs

@epsu.bsky.social
mihajlovicfreiburg.com
Update #Serbien: Es finden weiterhin täglich Proteste, Aktionen zu unterschiedlichen Problemen bzw. Repressionen statt. Heute ging es in Belgrad u.a. um den Bildungssektor. Es ist mittlerweile wirklich allen klar, dass das Vučić-Regime das staatliche Bildungssystem vollständig zerstören möchte.
1/x
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
6 of 10 care workers experience third party violence every year

Employers can act and create a safer workplace for workers

And we expect the Quality job act of @roxanaminzatu.bsky.social @ec.europa.eu to have action

It is a large contributing factor to stress at work

@epsu.bsky.social
oegb.bsky.social
Sechs von zehn Pflegekräften erleben jedes Jahr Beschimpfungen oder Drohungen, viele sogar körperliche Angriffe.

Arbeitgeber können durch klare Regeln, Schulungen und Supervision gezielt vorbeugen:
Pflegekräfte vor Gewalt schützen
Besonders häufig betroffen ist die Langzeitpflege.
www.gesundearbeit.at
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Been some time I reported on the Birmingham Binmen #strike with @unitetheunion.bsky.social

They are still going strong and organised protests this week as the Council spends millions on agency work to deal with waste

#solidarity

@epsu.bsky.social
@labornotes.bsky.social
Reposted by Jan Willem Goudriaan
rbreich.bsky.social
Trump is using our tax dollars to buy Argentine pesos to bail out the country's failing libertarian economy.

My friend Rohit Chopra explains how this will hurt struggling Americans here at home.
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
Research from Germany -with a collective agreement workers earn 10% more wage;and they work an hour less per week

The other way around: without a union, nearly a month's wages less per year;and working a week longer

It pays to be union

@epsu.bsky.social
@etui.bsky.social
@unionnews.bsky.social
boeckler-stiftung.bsky.social
Das #Tariftreuegesetz ist heute im Bundestag. Es ist ein wichtiger erster Schritt, um faire Bezahlung nach Tarif zu stärken. Aber der Regierungsentwurf hat noch Lücken, die die Abgeordneten schließen müssen.

Dass sich #Tarif lohnt, zeigt unsere Forschung: www.boeckler.de/de/boeckler-...
Grafik: Beschäftigte in tarifgebundenen Betrieben arbeiten 53 Minuten pro Woche weniger und bekommen 10,2% mehr Lohn.
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
the death penalty and assassinations sponsored by authoritarian regimes are used as a political tool against political opponents, independent journalists, and human rights defenders."

These political opponents, journalists, human rights defenders can be trade unionists.

@epsu.bsky.social
jwgoudriaan.bsky.social
World day against the death penalty

Position of the European Parliament against the death penalty

-It has been proven that the death penalty does not deter crime and that its imposition disproportionately affects vulnerable groups. Moreover, in today's more authoritarian global environment, ...
10 October: European and World Day Against the Death Penalty | News | European Parliament
Mounir Satouri, Chair of the subcommittee on Human Rights, issued a statement today, on the occasion of the European and World Day Against the Death Penalty.
www.europarl.europa.eu