President of Swiss trade union federation says unions will not support new contracts with the EU under their current conditions

President of the Swiss trade union federation and high-profile politician of the Social Democratic Party Pierre-Yves Maillard sees an attack on Swiss public services and wages in the new contracts that are being negotiated between the EU and Switzerland.

(translated from the article using google translate):

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He fears that foreign trains will displace the SBB in the future and that Swiss electricity customers will get their electricity from abroad instead of from local electricity companies. Maillard is certain that where liberalization takes place, jobs will be lost and wages will come under pressure.

But instead of protecting the high wages of Swiss employees compared to abroad and the local economy, liberalization will only continue. For Maillard, it is clear that the unions will not go along with the contract package without better protection of the Swiss public service and wages.

After the yes vote to the 13th AHV pension in May and the no vote to the pension reform, the self-confidence and composure that Pierre-Yves Maillard exudes has increased again.

For Maillard, the historic triumph of the AHV vote is still a great source of satisfaction: never before has the people voted for a union initiative. Never before had the conservatives suffered a more severe defeat. Maillard even managed to win over part of the SVP base to his side. He received warm applause from SVP voters for his appearance at the Albisgüetli conference in January.

At the end of this year, Maillard is full of self-confidence and sees himself in a position of strength in the negotiations on an EU treaty. He is calling on the Federal Council not to accept a weakening of the public services and to establish wage protection for Swiss employees based on collective agreements. In the end, the people will vote on the treaty anyway, he says, and will hardly appreciate a bourgeois power play in Bern.