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20240101 : The new self-described 'anarcho-capitalist' President of Argentina has begun to take action on his promised 'reforms', among them huge cuts to social spending and restrictions on the right to protest and the right to strike. Argentina's unions have responded with a call for a general strike later this month. (Photo: Mundo Gremial) Click here to read more union news from Argentina.
20240108 : 2023 was the most dangerous year ever for Palestinian journalists. Last week the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and the International Federation of Journalists released a report detailing the deaths of 102 media workers. Dozens more were injured and at least 58 have been arrested. (Photo: PJS/IFJ) Click here to read the English version of the PJS report.
20240115 : Indian rail workers, members of the ITF-affiliated All Indian Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) and the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), held a four-day hunger strike last week. The protest is the start of a campaign by rail workers to fight the Modi government's gutting of their pension scheme. (Photo: ITF) Click here to read more union news from India.
20240122 : Swedish union IF Metal is fighting for a first collective agreement with Tesla. In solidarity, Danish and Norwegian unions as well as other Swedish workers, are also striking Tesla. (Photo: IF Metal) Click here to read more union news from Sweden.
20240129 : On 24-01-2024 workplaces across Argentina remained shut as workers protested the "anarcho-capitalist" policies of the country's new far-right President. 1.4 million rallied in Buenos Aires alone. (Photo: UITA) Click here to read more union news from Argentina.
20240205 : Finnish unions are organizing political strikes in response to planned Government cuts to labour rights and social welfare. A major demonstration organised by SAK and STTK took place in Helsinki on 1.02.2024 with an estimated 13,000 participants. (Photo: SAK) Click here to read more union news from Finland.
20240212 : An international solidarity project run by UNI Global Union with the support of the FNV of Netherlands helped Ugandan Carrefour workers secure their first collective agreement and blazed the trail for further organizing campaigns across Africa. The project titled “Establishing Bridges, Growing Solidarity and Strengthening Collective Bargaining” concluded with an International Solidarity Summit held in Entebbe, Uganda on 22-25 January 2024. (Photo: UNI) Click here to read more union news from Uganda.
20240219 : The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions in India, along with sectoral and independent federations and farmers’ organisations, called a countrywide strike on 16 February to intensify the fight against the anti-labour and anti-people policies of the Indian government. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from India.
20240226 : On 18 February in Chimbote Peru, with the support of the National Federation of Beverage, Industry and Related Workers (Fentrabia), the San Pedro Pesque Workers' Union was founded. A large majority of the members of the new union are women. This is just the latest union to be created in the food sector. In 2024 UITA and Fentrabia hope to see the creation of a union for Peruvian fishers and fish processing plant workers. (Photo: UITA) Click here to read more union news from Peru.
20240304 : Portuguese hotel workers, like these CGTP members, are demanding a living wage at a time when their employers are making record profits. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to read more union news from Portugal.
20240311 : Women workers around the globe, like these in Sao Paulo Brazil, celebrated International Women's Day with with strikes, marches, and a wide range of educational and organizing activities. (Photo: CUT) Click here to read more news about women workers.
20240318 : Starting late last year and continuing in 2024, the Asociación Dominicana de Profesores (ADP), the union representing teachers in the Dominican Republic, was forced to resort to protests and short strikes after students and staff were poisoned by water provided to the country's schools. (Photo: ADP) Click here to read more labour news from the Dominican Republic.
20240325 : Like unions around the world, Switzerland's Schweizerischer Gewerkschaftsbund is organizing and mobilizing to win significant wage increases. Wages in Switzerland have been stagnant since 2016. SGB is pointing to the example set by Japanese unions where wage increases that have not been seen in decades are expected when bargaining is finished. (Photo: SGB) Click here to read more labour news from Switzerland.
20240401 : 200 participants in the ITUC Africa’s 14th New Year School from 31 countries, plus another 1000 supporters marched in Lusaka Zambia last week to present a petition to Brenda Tambatamba, Zambia’s minister of labour and social security. The petition called upon African governments to implement debt management policies that are pro-worker, promote gender equality and are sustainable. (Photo: ITUC Africa) Click here to read more labour news from across Africa.
20240408 : Workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, members of OPSEU-NUPGE, are on strike in a wage dispute. As you might expect of people who work at one of North America's premiere museums, their picket signs are more than usually creative. (Photo: Marque Notrade Vrilboticus) Click here to read more labour news from Canada.
20240415 : This year Khaing Zar Aung from Myanmar has been awarded the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights. The many reasons why she is this year's winner can be found by clicking through the top global story in which the decision was announced. (Photo: The Arthur Svensson Prize) Click here to read more labour news from Myanmar.
20240422 : Make Amazon Pay! is the slogan workers at the monster corporation's UK warehouses have adopted as they fight for union recognition. British union GMB achieved a breakthrough earlier this month when the government agency responsible for regulating collective bargaining ordered a recognition vote of all workers at the company's Coventry facility. If successful the vote would be a first in Europe.(Photo: UNI) Click here to read more labour news from the UK.
20240429 : The United Federation of the Working Class (FUCLAT), a political formation supported by many unions in Panama, including food workers, has announced that it will not support any candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. "The Panamanian electoral system is completely undemocratic and is structured so that economic power dominates political power," says the organisation. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more labour news from Panama.
20240506 : Despite May Day events being banned by Turkey's national government unions there uphold the tradition of marching to Taksim Square in Istanbul. This year police again met the marchers and over 200 were arrested. Here a police officer is trying to figure out the meaning of the flag carried by Jan Willem Goudriaan, the Gen-Sec of the European Public Service Union, as he joined this year's march. (Photo: K. Eliacik) Click here to read more labour news from Turkey.
20240513 : Starting on 13 May, workers at the world's only non-union Mercedes factory, in Alabama USA, will vote on whether to be represented by the United Auto Workers. The UAW recently won a ballot at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, also in the notoriously anti-union American south. The union has faced organized opposition from state governments, employers and even some religious leaders. (Photo: UAW) Click here to read more labour news from the USA.
20240519 : 19 May marks the 104th anniversary of the Matewan Massacre when coal mining company gun goons and miners clashed in Matewan, a small mining town. The Massacre led to the Battle of Blair Mountain in which 15,000 armed coal miners fought with company mercenaries and the US Army. This aerial bomb, dropped by the US military on the striking miners, failed to detonate and was later used to help win the acquital by local juries of almost 1000 miners accused of treason, insurrection and murder. It now resides at the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan. (Photo: D. Blackadder) Click here to read more labour news from the USA.
20240527 : 24 May 1968 was the high water mark for the May 68 uprising in France. 10 million workers were on strike with many occupying their factories. The city of Nantes and its surroundings were controlled by workers committees. (Photo: WCH) Click here to read more labour news from the France.
20240603 : On 24 May the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), National Shop Employees Federation (NSEF), and Akota Garment Workers Federation (AGWF) held a rally to demand a Just Transition to a green garment industry in Bangladesh. Among other things speakers highlighted the effects of rapidly rising temperatures on garment workers' workplaces and the impact of more frequent natural disasters on their homes and families. (Photo: NGWF) Click here to read more labour news from Bangladesh.
20240610 : The new executive of National Beauticians Union of Nepal (NABUN) met for the first time last week in Janakpur. The relatively new union is affiliated with GEFONT, the largest central labour union in Nepal. (Photo: NABUN) Click here to read more labour news from Nepal.
20240617 : On 14 June Swiss central trade union SGB-USS led a national general strike by women workers. Strikes by women workers have a long and proud history in Switzerland. The latest was organized to oppose cuts to pensions and to demand improved parental leave supports and an increase in women's wages. (Photo: SSP Geneve) Click here to read more labour news from Switzerland
20240624 : The Education, Media, and Culture Union (SOMK), representing childcare workers in Croatia, organized a major protest in Biograd na Moru on 27 May. The protest was titled "For the Right to Unionize and Engage in Collective Bargaining, Opposing Working Under Local Authoritarian Control." 200 childcare workers from across Croatia came to support 19 workers from the Ivana Brlić Mažuranić Kindergarten who have been on strike for 7 weeks over Biograd na Moru Mayor Ivan Knez’s announcement that Croatia’s labour law does not apply to them. (Photo: EPSU) Click here to read more labour news from Croatia
20240701 : On 20 June Portuguese workers, organized by the CGTP, kicked-off their campaign to win a 1000 Euros minimum wage. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to read more labour news from Portugal.
20240708 : Unions in Lesotho, including the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho, are part of an ILO project on safe and inclusive work environments which will focus on occupational health and safety and ending gender-based violence and harassment. (Photo: IDUL) Click here to read more labour news from Lesotho.
20240715 : Unions are organizing for a national general strike to place pressure on French President Macron to call on the Nouveau Front populaire (New Popular Front) to form France's next government. (Photo: CGT) Click here to read more labour news from France.
20240722 : 6,000 ambulance workers employed by a private contractor in the Indian state of Bihar are on strike. Members of BRCKS, the workers are demanding an end to precarious work and the implmentation of a 2023 collective agreement (Photo: UNI) Click here to read more labour news from India.
LabourStart's Photo of the Day Archive - 2024
20240101 : The new self-described 'anarcho-capitalist' President of Argentina has begun to take action on his promised 'reforms', among them huge cuts to social spending and restrictions on the right to protest and the right to strike. Argentina's unions have responded with a call for a general strike later this month. (Photo: Mundo Gremial) Click here to read more union news from Argentina.
20240108 : 2023 was the most dangerous year ever for Palestinian journalists. Last week the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and the International Federation of Journalists released a report detailing the deaths of 102 media workers. Dozens more were injured and at least 58 have been arrested. (Photo: PJS/IFJ) Click here to read the English version of the PJS report.
20240115 : Indian rail workers, members of the ITF-affiliated All Indian Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) and the National Federation of Indian Railwaymen (NFIR), held a four-day hunger strike last week. The protest is the start of a campaign by rail workers to fight the Modi government's gutting of their pension scheme. (Photo: ITF) Click here to read more union news from India.
20240122 : Swedish union IF Metal is fighting for a first collective agreement with Tesla. In solidarity, Danish and Norwegian unions as well as other Swedish workers, are also striking Tesla. (Photo: IF Metal) Click here to read more union news from Sweden.
20240129 : On 24-01-2024 workplaces across Argentina remained shut as workers protested the "anarcho-capitalist" policies of the country's new far-right President. 1.4 million rallied in Buenos Aires alone. (Photo: UITA) Click here to read more union news from Argentina.
20240205 : Finnish unions are organizing political strikes in response to planned Government cuts to labour rights and social welfare. A major demonstration organised by SAK and STTK took place in Helsinki on 1.02.2024 with an estimated 13,000 participants. (Photo: SAK) Click here to read more union news from Finland.
20240212 : An international solidarity project run by UNI Global Union with the support of the FNV of Netherlands helped Ugandan Carrefour workers secure their first collective agreement and blazed the trail for further organizing campaigns across Africa. The project titled “Establishing Bridges, Growing Solidarity and Strengthening Collective Bargaining” concluded with an International Solidarity Summit held in Entebbe, Uganda on 22-25 January 2024. (Photo: UNI) Click here to read more union news from Uganda.
20240219 : The Joint Platform of Central Trade Unions in India, along with sectoral and independent federations and farmers’ organisations, called a countrywide strike on 16 February to intensify the fight against the anti-labour and anti-people policies of the Indian government. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from India.
20240226 : On 18 February in Chimbote Peru, with the support of the National Federation of Beverage, Industry and Related Workers (Fentrabia), the San Pedro Pesque Workers' Union was founded. A large majority of the members of the new union are women. This is just the latest union to be created in the food sector. In 2024 UITA and Fentrabia hope to see the creation of a union for Peruvian fishers and fish processing plant workers. (Photo: UITA) Click here to read more union news from Peru.
20240304 : Portuguese hotel workers, like these CGTP members, are demanding a living wage at a time when their employers are making record profits. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to read more union news from Portugal.
20240311 : Women workers around the globe, like these in Sao Paulo Brazil, celebrated International Women's Day with with strikes, marches, and a wide range of educational and organizing activities. (Photo: CUT) Click here to read more news about women workers.
20240318 : Starting late last year and continuing in 2024, the Asociación Dominicana de Profesores (ADP), the union representing teachers in the Dominican Republic, was forced to resort to protests and short strikes after students and staff were poisoned by water provided to the country's schools. (Photo: ADP) Click here to read more labour news from the Dominican Republic.
20240325 : Like unions around the world, Switzerland's Schweizerischer Gewerkschaftsbund is organizing and mobilizing to win significant wage increases. Wages in Switzerland have been stagnant since 2016. SGB is pointing to the example set by Japanese unions where wage increases that have not been seen in decades are expected when bargaining is finished. (Photo: SGB) Click here to read more labour news from Switzerland.
20240401 : 200 participants in the ITUC Africa’s 14th New Year School from 31 countries, plus another 1000 supporters marched in Lusaka Zambia last week to present a petition to Brenda Tambatamba, Zambia’s minister of labour and social security. The petition called upon African governments to implement debt management policies that are pro-worker, promote gender equality and are sustainable. (Photo: ITUC Africa) Click here to read more labour news from across Africa.
20240408 : Workers at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto, members of OPSEU-NUPGE, are on strike in a wage dispute. As you might expect of people who work at one of North America's premiere museums, their picket signs are more than usually creative. (Photo: Marque Notrade Vrilboticus) Click here to read more labour news from Canada.
20240415 : This year Khaing Zar Aung from Myanmar has been awarded the Arthur Svensson International Prize for Trade Union Rights. The many reasons why she is this year's winner can be found by clicking through the top global story in which the decision was announced. (Photo: The Arthur Svensson Prize) Click here to read more labour news from Myanmar.
20240422 : Make Amazon Pay! is the slogan workers at the monster corporation's UK warehouses have adopted as they fight for union recognition. British union GMB achieved a breakthrough earlier this month when the government agency responsible for regulating collective bargaining ordered a recognition vote of all workers at the company's Coventry facility. If successful the vote would be a first in Europe.(Photo: UNI) Click here to read more labour news from the UK.
20240429 : The United Federation of the Working Class (FUCLAT), a political formation supported by many unions in Panama, including food workers, has announced that it will not support any candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. "The Panamanian electoral system is completely undemocratic and is structured so that economic power dominates political power," says the organisation. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more labour news from Panama.
20240506 : Despite May Day events being banned by Turkey's national government unions there uphold the tradition of marching to Taksim Square in Istanbul. This year police again met the marchers and over 200 were arrested. Here a police officer is trying to figure out the meaning of the flag carried by Jan Willem Goudriaan, the Gen-Sec of the European Public Service Union, as he joined this year's march. (Photo: K. Eliacik) Click here to read more labour news from Turkey.
20240513 : Starting on 13 May, workers at the world's only non-union Mercedes factory, in Alabama USA, will vote on whether to be represented by the United Auto Workers. The UAW recently won a ballot at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, also in the notoriously anti-union American south. The union has faced organized opposition from state governments, employers and even some religious leaders. (Photo: UAW) Click here to read more labour news from the USA.
20240519 : 19 May marks the 104th anniversary of the Matewan Massacre when coal mining company gun goons and miners clashed in Matewan, a small mining town. The Massacre led to the Battle of Blair Mountain in which 15,000 armed coal miners fought with company mercenaries and the US Army. This aerial bomb, dropped by the US military on the striking miners, failed to detonate and was later used to help win the acquital by local juries of almost 1000 miners accused of treason, insurrection and murder. It now resides at the Mine Wars Museum in Matewan. (Photo: D. Blackadder) Click here to read more labour news from the USA.
20240527 : 24 May 1968 was the high water mark for the May 68 uprising in France. 10 million workers were on strike with many occupying their factories. The city of Nantes and its surroundings were controlled by workers committees. (Photo: WCH) Click here to read more labour news from the France.
20240603 : On 24 May the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), National Shop Employees Federation (NSEF), and Akota Garment Workers Federation (AGWF) held a rally to demand a Just Transition to a green garment industry in Bangladesh. Among other things speakers highlighted the effects of rapidly rising temperatures on garment workers' workplaces and the impact of more frequent natural disasters on their homes and families. (Photo: NGWF) Click here to read more labour news from Bangladesh.
20240610 : The new executive of National Beauticians Union of Nepal (NABUN) met for the first time last week in Janakpur. The relatively new union is affiliated with GEFONT, the largest central labour union in Nepal. (Photo: NABUN) Click here to read more labour news from Nepal.
20240617 : On 14 June Swiss central trade union SGB-USS led a national general strike by women workers. Strikes by women workers have a long and proud history in Switzerland. The latest was organized to oppose cuts to pensions and to demand improved parental leave supports and an increase in women's wages. (Photo: SSP Geneve) Click here to read more labour news from Switzerland
20240624 : The Education, Media, and Culture Union (SOMK), representing childcare workers in Croatia, organized a major protest in Biograd na Moru on 27 May. The protest was titled "For the Right to Unionize and Engage in Collective Bargaining, Opposing Working Under Local Authoritarian Control." 200 childcare workers from across Croatia came to support 19 workers from the Ivana Brlić Mažuranić Kindergarten who have been on strike for 7 weeks over Biograd na Moru Mayor Ivan Knez’s announcement that Croatia’s labour law does not apply to them. (Photo: EPSU) Click here to read more labour news from Croatia
20240701 : On 20 June Portuguese workers, organized by the CGTP, kicked-off their campaign to win a 1000 Euros minimum wage. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to read more labour news from Portugal.
20240708 : Unions in Lesotho, including the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho, are part of an ILO project on safe and inclusive work environments which will focus on occupational health and safety and ending gender-based violence and harassment. (Photo: IDUL) Click here to read more labour news from Lesotho.
20240715 : Unions are organizing for a national general strike to place pressure on French President Macron to call on the Nouveau Front populaire (New Popular Front) to form France's next government. (Photo: CGT) Click here to read more labour news from France.
20240722 : 6,000 ambulance workers employed by a private contractor in the Indian state of Bihar are on strike. Members of BRCKS, the workers are demanding an end to precarious work and the implmentation of a 2023 collective agreement (Photo: UNI) Click here to read more labour news from India.