White Collar

White Collar workers represent an important, and growing, fraction of the European work force in industry. The statistical data provided by EuroStat provide some insight on this: the fraction of workers having achieved Tertiary education in European industry (EU28, NACE code C) grew from 16.3% to 21.9% between 2004 and 2014.

White Collar workers in industry display some specific features:

• compared to their Blue-Collar colleagues, they process information, rather than matter or energy.
• compared to their counterparts in other sectors, they work more often in technical and engineering jobs, and
  mobilise thereby Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills.

Starting with its 2nd Congress in June 2016, industriAll Europe has set up a specific Horizontal Working Group dedicated to White Collar workers. Its purpose is to feed the three Policy Committees (Industrial Policy, Collective Bargaining & Social Policy, Company Policy), the Task Force on "Building trade union power" and Sector Networks with the specific input of White Collars.