In the same week that the UK government ratified the ILO Forced Labour Protocol after pressure from the TUC and CBI, the Transport Minister has signalled that he will ratify the Hong Kong Convention…Read more…
Franco’s ghost: trade union rights under attack
As Spanish trade unions protest against the use of a Franco-era law criminalising picketing, the UK House of Lords is debating picketing restrictions criticised by Conservative MP David Davis as like…Read more…
Thai worker rights activist Andy Hall faces prosecution again
Today, British-born workers’ and migrants’ rights activist Andy Hall is back in court facing further charges arising from his work for a Finnish NGO on the abuse of migrant workers in a…Read more…
Solidarity on the 1st anniversary of Charlie Hebdo killings
This afternoon, exactly a year after murderous gunmen burst into the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to kill people doing their jobs, French trade unions have organised a…Read more…
Help make life better for women trade unionists in Libya
Want to start the New Year with some global solidarity? Our friends at LabourStart are running an e-action with the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) on behalf of Nermin Al-Sharif,…Read more…
Sir Lynton Crosby? Two countries, one strategy – weakening unions to make attacks on workers easier
In the New Year’s Honours List, David Cameron’s Australian attack dog Lynton Crosby is expected to receive a knighthood for his services to the Conservative Party. But his assistance has…Read more…
Somalia’s unions will not be cowed by violence
Yesterday, Omar Faruk Osman, the leader of our sister organisation in Somalia – the Federation of Somali Trade Unions (FESTU) – was the subject of an assassination attempt (thankfully…Read more…
Turkish unions protest for peace
While many trade unionists in the west are relaxing due to the gains of trade unionism (like holidays), workers in other parts of the world are still struggling for what we consider essential. Like…Read more…
Unions pressing Cambodia for decent workers’ rights
The TUC is joining Cambodian and global unions to press the Cambodian government to give workers the rights they are due under ILO conventions. And in particular, we want the Cambodian government to…Read more…
Workers in Chattanooga choose a union
The first workers at a foreign owned car assembly plant in the southern USA have won collective bargaining rights. It’s the latest stage in the attempt by the mighty UAW, in association with…Read more…
China persecutes activists to prevent its own reforms from succeeding
The government of China has engaged in a nasty and bizarre campaign of repression against labour activists, just as its own reforms threatened to do some good. A few days ago, Zeng Feiyang, Director…Read more…
Speaking up for trade union rights on Human Rights Day
Thousands of trade unionists around the world have lost their lives standing up for workers’ rights and social justice. Countless others have suffered, and continue to suffer persecution and denial…Read more…
Guatemala: where a union leader’s life costs just $195
I spoke today at #LatinAmerica15, the annual conference devoted to solidarity with our colleagues in South and Central America and the Caribbean. I was talking about Guatemala, in the company of Noé…Read more…
Broad alliance must raise the alarm on new Immigration Bill
The Immigration Bill is due to go through the Report stage and Third Reading in the House of Commons this Tuesday on 1st December. The Bill has emerged from the Public Bill Committee – to which the…Read more…
Become a film mogul & let everyone know how bravery took on apartheid
I’ve just left the launch of an exciting project to inform a new generation about a little-known element of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Grassroots film-makers Barefoot…Read more…
Korea’s broken promises sound alarm over OECD membership & trade agreements
South Korea is often held up as the poster boy for international development. A poverty-stricken country after the war with the North, and ruled by a military dictatorship from 1961 to 1987, it is…Read more…
UK proposals for EU renegotiation: Joint DGB-TUC statement
Reiner Hoffman, the President of the TUC’s German equivalent, the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB), has signed the following statement with me. It sets out our response to the Prime…Read more…
Unions are looking up in the slave state of Qatar
GMB International Officer Bert Schouwenburg has just returned from a visit to Qatar with Building Workers International. This is what he found. I was last in Qatar with the ITUC nearly two years ago…Read more…
Court brings Home Office to heel over Cuban Five visa
In a victory for freedom of expression, the Home Office has been forced to climb down over its refusal to issue a visa to a leading Cuban campaigner, in a legal move that may also benefit trade union…Read more…
Solidarity with Greek unions on strike today
The Greek trade union confederations, GSEE in the private sector and ADEDY in the public sector, have called a 24-hour General Strike today (12 November) against the latest round of austerity…Read more…