setting the roadmap for 2023
Annual EI Development Cooperation meeting: setting the roadmap for 2023 Topics in this post: The annual Education International Development Cooperation meeting is a key tool to gather education unions to exchange information, experiences and ideas to build up the capacity…
Garment worker killed and 50 injured in Bangladesh clashes
10.01.2019 A garment worker has been killed and another 50 injured after Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at around 5,000 protesting workers on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday 8 January. The following day, police…
Indian workers hold biggest strike in history
Ten trade union centres and several independent federations joined together for an historic general strike on 8 and 9 January 2019. Workers in manufacturing, mining, energy, transportation, banking, public services, construction and many other sectors took part, including many IndustriALL…
Strike action reinstates union leaders in Myanmar
Around 350 workers from 15 other factories joined the strike in solidarity earlier this week after the company reneged on an agreement to rehire the seven union officials. Around 100 members of IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate in Myanmar, the Industrial Workers…
Construire nos syndicats : le pouvoir des jeunes travailleurs-euses
En 2017, le Congrès de l’UITA, donnant suite au besoin largement ressenti et exprimé par les affiliées de systématiquement et sérieusement syndiquer et recruter les jeunes travailleurs-euses, a décidé d’établir un Comité des jeunes travailleurs-euses et de s’assurer que les…
Moroccan unions launch “Month of Anger”
The Moroccan union federations Confédération Démocratique du Travail (CDT) and the Union Marocaine du Travail (UMT) have suspended all social dialogue and launched campaigns to force the government to respect trade union rights. Both federations have a number of unions…
Desperate mine workers resort to hunger strike in Ukraine
The workers, Iryna Strykalova, Natalia Mednikova and Maya Lewandowska, were joined a few days later by another employee, Larisa Malik. According to the deputy chairperson of the local organization of the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine in Selydovo and…
teachers strike over pay as currency crisis deepens
As talks with the government failed to reach an agreement, Zimbabwean teachers are striking to press their government to pay their salaries with U.S. dollars. Workers, including educators, affected by sinking national financial system Cash shortages have plunged Zimbabwe’s…
A summary review of the strikes by sugarcane and steel workers – Jan 8, 2019
In this issue: A summary review of the strikes by sugarcane and steel workers and what are at stake: Fight back against privatization and for workers’ self-management of their factories: Government crackdown and attempts to impose Islamic Labour Councils: The…
Building our unions: the power of young workers
The IUF Congress in 2017, responding to the widely felt need expressed by affiliates to systematically and seriously organize and recruit young workers, decided to establish a young workers’ committee and to ensure that workers 35 and under are represented…
National Grid lockout ends with new 6-year contract
08.01.2019 Some 1,250 workers at National Grid in Massachusetts, USA, will be returning to work under a new 6-year contract, ending a lockout lasting more than six months. Members of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the United Steelworkers (USW), voted to…
Many dead in Afghanistan mine collapse
08.01.2019 At least thirty people were killed, and several injured, when a mine collapsed in the northern parts of Afghanistan on 6 January. Heavy snowfall caused a landslide which resulted in the mine caving in. 50 people were inside the…
Staff shortages limits access to and quality of early childhood education
Germany: Staff shortages limits access to and quality of early childhood education Topics in this post: Little support and recognition of the profession of early childhood educators is leading to a dangerous lack of staff, according to a German union….
Trade unionists in Algeria arrested at protest
Police seized over 15 trade unionists including Abdelkader Kawafi general secretary of IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the electricity and gas workers’ union, SNATEG; as well as Zakaria Ben Haddad, general secretary of energy workers’ union, SNT ÉNERGIE; and Mezayani Moussa from…
Esmaeil Bakhshi, Iran’s prominent labour activist: “I was tortured, kicked and beaten to the brink of death”
Esmaeil Bakhshi, Iran’s prominent labour activist: “I was tortured, kicked and beaten to the brink of death without reason or any words to the extent that I could not move for 72 hours in my cell”. An open letter…
First-ever collective agreement reached in Turkish gold mining
Covering around 200 workers, the CBA will be valid for a two-year period in 2019-2020 in the operations ok, belonging to a multi-sector conglomerate Nurol Holding. The company is one of the first locally-owned private investors to start up a…
INTERVIEW: Luisa María Alcalde
“People are buzzing with enthusiasm – you can feel it in the air,” says Luisa María Alcalde cheerfully. It is truly the start of a new era for the people of Mexico: Andrés Manuel López Obrador was recently elected president,…
Global Diamond Network demands better conditions in the supply chain
03.01.2019 The IndustriALL Global Union Diamond Network meeting 19-21 December in Johannesburg, South Africa, attended by 25 delegates from Belgium, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe resolved to improve working conditions in the diamond supply chain. The supply…
an exciting Congress year ahead!
As we welcome new opportunities to advance worldwide achievement of free quality public education for all in 2019, Education International wishes you and your families a happy new year! The highlight of 2019 for Education International (EI) will be the…
New Year brings fresh tragedy for Pakistan’s coal miners
According to reports, the men were working hundreds of metres underground at a mine in the Chamalang coal mining range when the explosion took place. Miners had to retrieve the bodies of their colleagues themselves. All the victims of Wednesday’s…
Denmark: 3F organizes for a collective agreement for Tivoli Gardens fast food workers
The IUF-affiliated 3F (United Federation of Danish Workers) is organizing to bring under a collective agreement a group of fast food restaurants in Copenhagen’s famous Tivoli Gardens many of whose primarily young workers are employed under precarious conditions and denied…
IndustriALL decries Belgian company’s union-busting in Turkey
Workers at Recticel’s production facility, in Tuzla, Istanbul, joined IndustriALL’s Turkish affiliate Petrol-Is (the oil, chemical and rubber workers’ union) in 2015, after the Turkish Ministry of Labour decided the union had the legal right to represent workers at the…
CUPE National calls Ford government’s attacks on power workers dangerous and unacceptable
The Canadian Union of Public Employees says the Ford government’s assault on the collective bargaining rights of their members at Ontario Hydro sets a dangerous and unacceptable precedent. Back-to-work legislation was passed at Queen’s Park today, even though members of…
Turkey: 186-day strike at Mayr-Melnhof ends in victory for workers
Selüloz-İş’ members had been on strike since 20 June, when negotiations on a new collective agreement failed as management proposed a zero per cent wage increase. With the new three-year agreement workers will get wage increases of 280 Turkish Liras…
Germany bids farewell to hard coal after 200 years
The ceremony was attended by Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Armin Laschet and Michael Vassiliadis, President of IndustriALL Global Union’s German affiliate Mining, Chemistry, Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE). “Closing the…
IndustriALL mourns for 13 miners killed in Czech Republic
Eleven Polish nationals and two Czech miners died in a methane blast more than 800 metres underground at the mine, which is situated close to the Polish border. A search of the scene had to be abandoned due to a raging…
Fair trade certification for Fyffes’ union-busting melons revoked under pressure
Fair Trade USA, in response to organized pressure, has revoked the fair trade certification for melons sold in the US produced by Irish fresh fruit giant Fyffes on their Suragroh plantations in Honduras. Suragroh-Fyffes workers have faced continuous retaliation for…
Chemical and pharmaceutical unions build power in India
Making up 13 per cent of total exports, the Indian chemical industry represents 7 per cent of GDP and 13 per cent of the total industrial output with a 12 per cent growth per annum. While the Indian chemical industry…
Asian women union leaders join forces to combat bullying and sexual harassment in schools
Top women education unionists from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have taken stock of their 2018 activities focusing on anti-bullying and research on sexual harassment, and adopted a 2019 action plan to push forward action. Thirteen women union leaders…
IndustriALL unions negotiate global dispute resolution mechanism with H&M
The GFA with H&M is unique in that has a National Monitoring Committees made up of representatives from unions and H&M to implement workers’ rights under the terms of the GFA. The NMCs are active in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and…