Unions around the world have welcomed the election result in Greece last Sunday, because the victory of the anti-austerity Syriza party was a rejection of the policies that have dominated Europe…Read more…
#HolocaustMemorialDay 2015: Remember the holocaust
This Holocaust Memorial Day the spotlight is on the worrying growth of anti-semitism in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, where hard right and neo-fascist parties are gaining ground. The attacks in…Read more…
TUC launches new guide in 13 languages to combat migrant worker exploitation
Today the TUC is launching the online guide Working in the UK in 13 languages including Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian and Portuguese and Italian to combat the exploitation of migrant workers. This…Read more…
Global pressure forces withdrawal of Thai prison labour plans
Campaigning has paid off again. Last week I blogged about a campaign we’d joined to stop the Thai Government’s plans to force prisoners to work in the notorious Thai fishing industry….Read more…
Unions join condemnations of Thai prison labour plans
The TUC has joined a coalition of 43 union and human rights organisations condemning the regime in Thailand for a planned pilot project recruiting prisoners to fill labour shortages in the…Read more…
Nous sommes Charlie: Journalists show solidarity in Paris
Visiting the site close to the Charlie Hebdo offices along with NUJ assistant general secretary Seamus Dooley, it was impossible not to be instantly moved by the mounting tributes and memorials to…Read more…
Hadi Saleh’s legacy, ten years on
Today is the tenth anniversary of martyrdom of Hadi Saleh, international officer of the Iraqi trade union movement and my close friend. The union centre he represented, now known as the GFITU, is…Read more…
Iraqi unions build protest on jobs, wages and union rights
2015 began with a fresh new wave of industrial action across Iraq (apart from Iraqi Kurdistan) organised by the national trade union centre, the GFITU. The action centred on several demands,…Read more…
Unions condemn the Charlie Hebdo killings
As crowds gathered in cities across France and beyond today, standing in solidarity with those attacked at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, journalists’ unions expressed their shock and…Read more…
Iraqi unions are still demanding better
Despite the impact of the ISIS insurgency, workers across Iraq staged several industrial actions from the end of October, through November and into the first part of December, and returned to the…Read more…
Fast-food workers scent justice in fight with franchises
In a ruling that has given US unions a significant boost, the US National Labor Relations Board has ruled that McDonald’s (and other fast food outlets) are a “joint employer” of workers at its…Read more…
Spreading positive messages on migration on International Migrants Day
Thursday 18 December is International Migrants Day, so it is appropriate that I inform you of the latest TUC project on migration. The TUC’s Migration Messaging Campaign began earlier this year to…Read more…
Overseas aid bill clears Commons – now heads for Lords
Michael Moore MP’s private members’ bill – aiming to bind future UK governments to spend 0.7% of Gross National Income on official development assistance (overseas aid) cleared the…Read more…
Glencore: unions protest at mining multinational’s misdemeanours
This week Unite will be joined by representatives of the United Steelworkers from the USA who have been locked out by their company Sherwin Alumina, in Gregory, Texas. Their company is owned by…Read more…
The world needs a pay rise: Oxfam recognises the union role
Oxfam has today issued a guide for businesses on implementing living wages throughout their global supply chains, and it puts collective bargaining and trade unions centre stage. The paper is full of…Read more…
Modern Slavery Bill: take action on Monday
The TUC is working with a range of corporate accountability and anti-slavery campaign groups and NGOs, including the Ethical Trading Initiative, to strengthen the Modern Slavery Bill, which is now…Read more…
Catch-22, Cuban style
Tonight (Wednesday 3 December), the traditional annual Vigil for the Cuban Five will take place outside the US Embassy in London. The gathering, now in its 8th year, calls on the US to honour calls…Read more…
Child Slavery: Tell the UN to act
Last week, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),the Global March Against Child Labour along with International Trade…Read more…
Swaziland’s Marikana in the making?
Striking Swazi miners have retreated to a nearby hill in protest at the way they are being treated by their employer and the Swazi police, in a worrying echo of what happened ahead of the infamous…Read more…
Striking workers in Qatar find labour laws finally working – against them
If you ever needed proof of Qatar’s one-sided refereeing, this is it The reason “Play by the Rules” is one of our ‘Playfair Qatar’ campaign demands is that Qatar could make life better for its 1.5m…Read more…