SPEECH OF CIPRIAN POP, SECRETARY GENERAL “WORKER'S ROMANIA” ASSOCIATION MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION “UISTAATC” PARIS 4 to 8th June 2019

SPEECH OF CIPRIAN POP,

SECRETARY GENERAL

“WORKER'S ROMANIA” ASSOCIATION

MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE of THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION “UISTAATC”

PARIS

4 to 8^th June 2019

Dear comrades and friends,

We were very pleased to receive the invitation to the UISTAATC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING, here in Paris, and we are very grateful and proud to see that a trade union force like yours invites a small association like ours to be a part of such an impressive activity, counting on a large international participation. I am sure that the present meeting will lead to happy results thanks to the sincere efforts of all the delegates, thus contributing to the development of our collaboration, improving the social situation of the workers world wide.

We are only at the beginning, we are trying to make ourselves known and we are always looking forward to receiving the knowledge and skills of our more experienced brothers.

Unfortunately for us, the unions in our country are not strong, a large part of the economy is taken over by large foreign companies, which offer low wages and modest pensions, and our local legislation mainly favors the interests of foreign capital. Socioeconomic ills such as poverty, hunger and unemployment have grown worse, while politicians and the media continue to dazzle “the mirage” of economic recovery. Of course, we must ask ourselves who benefits from this so called "economic recovery"?

My country, Romania, ranks second in the world (after Syria) as the number of immigrants, 9 Romanians per hour, 17% of the country's working population, or one-fifth of the total population;

- we lost 40,000 physicians (between 2007-2017), 84,000 young people under 36 years of age, 19% of whom had higher education (61% women);

- We are a source of skilled labor in Austria, Hungary, France, Germany and for the United States and Canada.
The consequences, especially in the medium and long term, are terrifying:

• 5 to 6 million Romanians are permanently or temporarily abroad.
• Children left behind leave school, become illiterate, do not receive moral parenting education, which is why they will become a major problem in the next 5 to 10 years.

When a government takes action for Romanian employees and retirees, almost immediately, large multinational corporations launch various forms of protest, mainly through NGOs paid for by foreign capital. They are falsely called "representatives of civil society" and associations like ours must strive to make their voices heard.

Dear comrades, we are confident that wise decisions will be taken at the present congress, as well as good directions to make our struggle stronger and stronger for the future to come and the many challenges that lie ahead.

This is more necessary today when US imperialism seems to have opened new fronts to plunder the many nations unjustly considered "poor states", in order to seize their resources and take advantage of the unemployed, providing their hard work extremely cheap.

To dominate the whole world by force is the invariable strategy of American imperialism under Mr. Trump. All the peoples of the planet, those who love peace, must form a broad united front and launch an energetic movement against the looting of the capital and the exploitation.

We are happy to take part in the discussions and decisions adopted on this occasion, because we share the same ideals and we have the same points of view, including with regard to the current international situation.

My heartfelt thanks go to my fellow organizers and friends from different countries.

Ciprian POP

Secretary General

“Worker's Romania” Association