The discussion took place against the backdrop of an exceptionally dynamic and unpredictable industrial landscape. With investments shifting, new plants opening, restructuring processes unfolding and supply-chain volatility increasing, workers across the battery value chain continue to face uncertainty, creating major challenges for unions and workers.

Steady progress on organising in a rapidly changing sector

One message came through loud and clear: organising is the only way to secure a strong workers’ voice, improve working conditions, and build lasting protection in a rapidly changing sector.

Despite the volatility, affiliates highlighted encouraging developments, including:

• growing numbers of workplace contacts and the first steps toward building organising structures,
• strengthened mapping work and more one-to-one conversations with workers,
• emerging opportunities for collective bargaining,
• and early but important advances in improving workplace safety and ensuring visible union presence.

These achievements show that building strong unions in the new, fast-moving battery sector is not only necessary - it is already underway.

Putting trade union power into batteries project update: strong momentum as implementation accelerates

The BTUP project continues to progress at pace. Key milestones reached include:

• completion of the sectoral mapping and the OSH Charter,
• successful national workshops in Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Serbia,
• the identification of priority targets and agreement of national workplans, now moving into the implementation phase,
• and the expansion of organiser networks in Serbia, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

Preparations are underway for local campaigns, workplace surveys and training modules to be deployed in 2025–2026. Affiliates are also actively exchanging strategies on organising, OSH, migrant-worker engagement, supply-chain mapping and digital organising tools, thereby further strengthening collective capacity across borders.

Launching a campaign on OSH in the battery sector

One of the meeting’s key announcements was the upcoming campaign on occupational safety and health (OSH) in the battery industry. The campaign will raise awareness of sector-specific OSH risks while also stressing that organised workplaces are safer workplaces.
It will support affiliates in engaging workers around both safety concerns and the need to build collective strength, reflected in its core message “stronger together”.

Five new OSH leaflets: practical tools for workplace organising

Affiliates welcomed the presentation of five new OSH leaflets, now ready for workplace distribution in English, Hungarian, Serbian, Polish and Slovak. These materials translate the OSH Charter into concrete demands and accessible information for workers.

The leaflets cover:

• workers’ rights to participate in OSH decisions,
• general protection and prevention measures,
• exposure to hazardous chemicals,
• risks linked to extreme environments,
• and safe operation around powerful machinery.

Designed as practical organising tools, the leaflets aim to spark workplace conversations, strengthen union visibility and support workers in demanding safer conditions.

Strengthening global leverage through cooperation with IndustriALL Global Union

The meeting also underscored close cooperation with IndustriALL Global Union on battery-sector organising. At global level, efforts focus on full supply-chain organising - from mining and refining to component production, cell manufacturing, recycling and assembly. Particular attention is given to countries such as Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where critical minerals are sourced.

This work includes global mapping, cross-border organising support, addressing OSH and labour-rights violations, and promoting Global Framework Agreements with multinational companies. These global efforts reinforce European-level organising, increasing leverage across complex and powerful supply chains.

Closing the meeting, Judith Kirton-Darling, industriAll Europe’s General Secretary emphasised:

“Building strong unions across the battery value chain is essential for ensuring that no worker is left behind in Europe’s industrial transformation. Batteries are at the core of the electrification of our economy, from electric mobility to renewable energy storage, and the sector will only continue to grow in strategic importance.

“But this transformation can never come at the expense of workers’ rights, nor at the cost of their health and safety. Ensuring high standards, fair conditions and strong worker participation is non-negotiable. This is why organising the strategic battery sector is imperative for industriAll Europe and central to our strategy of building trade union power across the continent.”