Europe’s workers face bleak winter as firms ‘profiteer’, says union chief

‘We’re being told, “Well, you have to now rein it in”’ … Esther Lynch in Brussels. Photograph: Christophe Smets/The Guardian

Workers across Europe are “holding on with their fingernails” and face a bleak winter ahead, as high interest rates exacerbate the cost of living crisis, the European TUC leader, Esther Lynch, has warned.

With eurozone interest rates at record levels, 2023 will be remembered as “a time of great economic injustice”, Lynch told the Guardian. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) represents 45 million workers from across the continent, including the UK.