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20230102 : Alexander Yarashuk, Siarhei Antusevich and Iryna But-Husaim are officers of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, imprisoned for their union activities. Around the globe, trade unionists like these in Germany have been demanding their release and an end to the repression of independent trade unions in Belarus. (Photo: L. Merliak) Click here to join the global campaign to free all imprisoned trade unionists in Belarus.
20230109 : As supporters of far-right former President Bolsonaro attempt a coup, Brazil's unions comdemned the attack on democracy and moved to ensure the security of key facilities. Workers are being mobilized to counter the coup. (Photo: Agencia Sindical) Click here to see all our union news from Brazil.
20230116 : In the midst of Peru's political chaos, trade unions have been mobilizing in defence of democracy and against attempts to use the crisis to undermine workers' rights. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see all our union news from Peru.
20230123 : On 18 January police raided the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, allegedly because of violations of the National Security Act. The following day the KCTU held a news conference to protest the 10-hour long raid. The police responded with a second raid on 20 January. 1000 police officers have been committed to this 'investigation', just the latest in a pattern of harassment directed at unions by right-wing President Yoon Suk-Yeol. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to see all our union news from Korea.
20230130 : The right to strike in the UK, already much-eroded, is under attack yet again. Trade unions are responding with a massive mobilization effort and have called for a Protect the Right to Strike Day on 1 February. (Photo: TUC) Click here to see all our union news from the United Kingdom.
20230206 : The UK continues to see strikes that in scope and impact are the biggest in many decades, even as the country's right-wing government moves to attack the right to strike. (Photo: Anon.) Click here to see all our union news from the United Kingdom.
20230213 : Last week private sector healthcare workers in Chile won a huge victory: the right to 'restorative rest' in recognition of their extraordinary efforts though the pandemic. (Photo: FENASSAP) Click here to see all our union news from Chile.
20230220 : Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) looks back on a year of relentless work, in which NUJU has supported journalists on the ground and assesses the challenges they face as the war enters its second year. (Photo: IFJ) Click here to read the full interview.
20230227 : Globally, security guards are amongst the workers hardest hit by inflation as most barely make a living wage at the best of times. Unions in the security sector are pushing hard for substantial wage increases. UPSRA represents security workers in Argentina and is in the final stages of a national mobilization for a new wage agreement. (Photo: UPSRA) Click here to see more union news from Argentina.
20230306 : Last week Turkish unions DISK and KESK organized a rally to protest the corruption that is hindering earthquake recovery operations. The result? Union leaders at the demo were arrested. As unions are playing an important role in those efforts this action will likely further slow relief efforts directed at victims of the disaster(Photo: E. Nazlıer-Evrensel Daily) Click here to see more union news from Turkey.
20230313 : Last week unions around the world marked International Women's Day (known in some countries as Int'l Women Workers Day). Turkish union KESK's slogan for this year's IWD was "We are rebuilding our lives based on our #solidarity, anger. Rebel!". (Photo: KESK) Click here to see all our IWD coverage.
20230320 : The global struggle for a living wage in the face of inflation is heating up. In Portugal, STAL, a CGTP affiliate, organized a national public sector strike last Friday to demand a wage increase that matches the rate of inflation. The following day CGTP held a massive march in Lisbon to protest growing poverty and inequality. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see union news from Portugal.
20230327 : Portugal is just one of dozens of countries facing a tsunami of wage strike as unions react to the rise in the cost of living. Last Saturday the CGTP organized a massive march through Lisbon, one of a series of actions protesting low wages and growing inequality. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see union news from Portugal.
20230403 : Mikhail Lobanov was a co-founder of the independent trade-union of higher education staff, University Solidarity, and chair of its largest branch, at Lomonosov Moscow State University. From the very start of the “Special Military Operation” he stood openly for the cessation of military actions. As a result he was arrested on 29 December 2022 and jailed. Eventually released he has suffered continual judicial harassment. His union is campaigning to have all charges dropped. (Photo: University Solidarity) Click here to see union news from Russia.
20230410 : French unions, in a almost unprecedented show of solidarity, continue their united front against the Macron government's undemocratic rollback of pensions. On 6 April 2 million workers demonstrated across the country. A further one-day strike will occur on the 13th. (Photo: Eric TSCHAEN/REA/FO) Click here to see union news from France.
20230417 : Next Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza mass industrial homicide. On 24 April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five garment factories, killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2,500. The global labour movement responded by pressing fashion brands to require minimum safety standards from their suppliers in Bangladesh, an agreement known as the Bangladesh Accord. (Photo: A. Biswas et. al.) Click here to read more about the Bangladesh Accord.
20230424 : Wage strikes have become common as inflation continues to erode workers' buying power. Huge strikes in Argentina, Canada, the Uk and elsewhere make the headlines but inflation has hit workers everywhere. Here BHM (Iceland's union for professionals) members march through the streets of Reykjavik. (Photo: BHM) Click here to read more union news from Iceland.
20230501 : Banana plantations usually provide housing for workers as part of their compensation. So when an employer Bandeco del Monte stops maintaining its housing, the effect on the (mostly women) workers is acute. These Costa Rican workers, members of SINTRAPYB, an IUF affiliate, are part of the struggle for dignity in housing for banana workers. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more union news from Costa Rica.
20230508 : In their traditional May Day march, Guatemalan drinks bottling workers, members of Stecsa, carried this photo of former IUF President Lage Andréasson. He led the Swedish Food Workers' Federation (Livs) between 1979 and 1991 and was the most beloved president of the IUF, a position he held from 1989 to 1993. Comrade Andréasson, who died in March at age 92, was a life-long advocate for solidarity between food and beverage workers around the world. (Photo: Stecsa) Click here to read more union news from Guatemala.
20230515 : STM members in Panama are campaigning, with the support of global union federation IndustriALL, for an end to union busting by Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Panama.
20230522 : USian Starbucks workers, like these marching in Louisville Colorado, have come to symbolize a resurgent US labour movement as hundreds of coffee shops across the country have been organized in the past very few years. (Photo: C. Goodwin) Click here to read more union news from the USA.
20230529 : Union retirees in the USA are prominent in the climate justice movement. (Photo: C. Goodwin) Click here to read more union news from the USA.
20230605 : Strikes by women workers in Switzerland have a long and proud history. An alliance of trade unions and feminist organizations are in the final stages of a mobilization for a national strike on 14 June. The Swiss union SGB Women's Commission statement reads: "During the pandemic, we applauded the workers in care, sales and cleaning. But wages and working conditions remain unchanged: women are still struggling with lower wages, low pensions, poor work-life balance, violence and discrimination,” (Photo: SGB) Click here to read more union news from Switzerland.
20230612 : Food and beverage workers around the world, like these NGG members in Germany, are amongst the most militant in the fight to regain purchasing power as inflation erodes the purchasing power of wages which have not increased substantially in years. (Photo: NGG) Click here to read more union news from Germany.
20230619 : On 14 June women across Switzerland struck against gender discrimination inside and outside the workplace. It was just the latest in a long series of national walkouts by women workers. (Photo: SGB-USS) Click here to read more union news from our Working Women page.
20230626 : Last week Costa Rican teachers, members of ANDE, marched through the streets of San Jose to signal their determination to defend the public education system in that country. (Photo: ANDE) Click here to read more union news from Costa Rica.
20230703 : Food workers are finding that their work is increasingly affected by global warming and other signs of humanity's impact on the natural environment. Canadian fishers increasingly find themselves fighting just to maintain their industry and way of life as fish stocks continue to decline. (Photo: FFAW-Unifor) Click here to read more union news from Canada.
20230710 : On 24 June gunmen entered a billiard hall in Choloma, Honduras, and murdered 13 Gildan garment factory workers, including four leaders of SITRAGSAM, the workers' union. Union members risked their lives to march in the funeral procession.(Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Honduras.
20230717 : The Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KHMU) struck on 13-14 July. The action involved over 64,000 KHMU members from 127 Branches all over Korea. The government claims that the strike is "political" and therefore illegal. KHMU President Na responded in her address to a rally in Seoul: "If it is a political strike to demand that the people’s high health care costs be solved and that the public hospitals that saved people’s lives be saved, then shouldn’t this kind of political strike be held?"(Photo: UNI) Click here to read more union news from South Korea.
20230724 : Joining healthcare workers around the globe, Spanish home care workers struck last week, despite the threat of legal sanctions.(Photo: CGT) Click here to read more union news from Spain.
20230731 : British rail workers have been striking on and off for months now as their union, RMT, presses for a wage increase that matches the rate of inflation. RMT member Helen and her groom Jay, a comrade from sister rail union ASLEF, took a break from picketing last week to get married. (Photo: RMT) Click here to read more union news from the UK.
20230807 : Canada is experiencing a wave of rejected agreements as union members choose to strike rather than accept wage increases that do not keep pace with the rate of inflation. One of the high-profile strikes that has resulted is by grocery store workers in Toronto. (Photo: J4W) Click here to read more union news from Canada.
20230814 : Last week 2000 Turkish constructions workers in Tanzania struck. The workers are demanding months of unpaid wages for their work for a Turkish company on the Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway project. (Photo: Bianet) Click here to read more union news from Turkey.
20230821 : Malaysia’s National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers (NUTEAIW) is urging Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to comply with an ILO decision. The international body ruled in June 2022 that HICOM Automotive violated workers’ freedom of association. Since then the anti-union discrimination, including the sacking of union activists, has continued. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Malaysia.
20230828 : The National Network for Domestic Worker Advocacy, an IDWF affiliate, has played a key role in promoting the Domestic Worker Protection Bill in Indonesia. Last week they were pressing the cases of 5 abused workers seeking justice, and have mobilized a crowdfunding effort to support them. (Photo: IDWF) Click here to read more union news from Indonesia.
20230904 : Honduras is a country with a long history of military coups. So the recent election of President Xiomara Castro, a progressive, has seen huge mobilizations by trade unions and other mass organizations in an effort to warn off the right and pre-empt any attempt at ejecting her. Castro's government is committed to an end to impunity for those who have murdered, tortured and persecuted union activists, amongst others. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more union news from Honduras.
20230911 : On 7 September SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association, the largest union in India, celebrated the birthday of its deceased founder, Ela Bhatt, and 51 years of organizing marginalized women workers. (Photo: IUF) Click here to read more union news from India.
20230918 : Last week unions in Pakistan marked the 11th anniversary of the Ali Enterprises factory fire in which more than 250 workers, most of them women, died. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Pakistan.
20230925 : Wage adjustments continue to drive bargaining around the world as inflation bites. These USian workers at the University of Colorado, members of University Workers United (Colorado), a CWA affiliate, are just a few of the millions of union members pressing hard to preserve their purchasing power. (Photo: C.Goodwin/desrowVISUALS) Click here to read more union news from the USA.
LabourStart's Photo of the Day Archive - 2023
20230102 : Alexander Yarashuk, Siarhei Antusevich and Iryna But-Husaim are officers of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, imprisoned for their union activities. Around the globe, trade unionists like these in Germany have been demanding their release and an end to the repression of independent trade unions in Belarus. (Photo: L. Merliak) Click here to join the global campaign to free all imprisoned trade unionists in Belarus.
20230109 : As supporters of far-right former President Bolsonaro attempt a coup, Brazil's unions comdemned the attack on democracy and moved to ensure the security of key facilities. Workers are being mobilized to counter the coup. (Photo: Agencia Sindical) Click here to see all our union news from Brazil.
20230116 : In the midst of Peru's political chaos, trade unions have been mobilizing in defence of democracy and against attempts to use the crisis to undermine workers' rights. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see all our union news from Peru.
20230123 : On 18 January police raided the offices of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, allegedly because of violations of the National Security Act. The following day the KCTU held a news conference to protest the 10-hour long raid. The police responded with a second raid on 20 January. 1000 police officers have been committed to this 'investigation', just the latest in a pattern of harassment directed at unions by right-wing President Yoon Suk-Yeol. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to see all our union news from Korea.
20230130 : The right to strike in the UK, already much-eroded, is under attack yet again. Trade unions are responding with a massive mobilization effort and have called for a Protect the Right to Strike Day on 1 February. (Photo: TUC) Click here to see all our union news from the United Kingdom.
20230206 : The UK continues to see strikes that in scope and impact are the biggest in many decades, even as the country's right-wing government moves to attack the right to strike. (Photo: Anon.) Click here to see all our union news from the United Kingdom.
20230213 : Last week private sector healthcare workers in Chile won a huge victory: the right to 'restorative rest' in recognition of their extraordinary efforts though the pandemic. (Photo: FENASSAP) Click here to see all our union news from Chile.
20230220 : Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Sergiy Tomilenko, president of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) looks back on a year of relentless work, in which NUJU has supported journalists on the ground and assesses the challenges they face as the war enters its second year. (Photo: IFJ) Click here to read the full interview.
20230227 : Globally, security guards are amongst the workers hardest hit by inflation as most barely make a living wage at the best of times. Unions in the security sector are pushing hard for substantial wage increases. UPSRA represents security workers in Argentina and is in the final stages of a national mobilization for a new wage agreement. (Photo: UPSRA) Click here to see more union news from Argentina.
20230306 : Last week Turkish unions DISK and KESK organized a rally to protest the corruption that is hindering earthquake recovery operations. The result? Union leaders at the demo were arrested. As unions are playing an important role in those efforts this action will likely further slow relief efforts directed at victims of the disaster(Photo: E. Nazlıer-Evrensel Daily) Click here to see more union news from Turkey.
20230313 : Last week unions around the world marked International Women's Day (known in some countries as Int'l Women Workers Day). Turkish union KESK's slogan for this year's IWD was "We are rebuilding our lives based on our #solidarity, anger. Rebel!". (Photo: KESK) Click here to see all our IWD coverage.
20230320 : The global struggle for a living wage in the face of inflation is heating up. In Portugal, STAL, a CGTP affiliate, organized a national public sector strike last Friday to demand a wage increase that matches the rate of inflation. The following day CGTP held a massive march in Lisbon to protest growing poverty and inequality. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see union news from Portugal.
20230327 : Portugal is just one of dozens of countries facing a tsunami of wage strike as unions react to the rise in the cost of living. Last Saturday the CGTP organized a massive march through Lisbon, one of a series of actions protesting low wages and growing inequality. (Photo: CGTP) Click here to see union news from Portugal.
20230403 : Mikhail Lobanov was a co-founder of the independent trade-union of higher education staff, University Solidarity, and chair of its largest branch, at Lomonosov Moscow State University. From the very start of the “Special Military Operation” he stood openly for the cessation of military actions. As a result he was arrested on 29 December 2022 and jailed. Eventually released he has suffered continual judicial harassment. His union is campaigning to have all charges dropped. (Photo: University Solidarity) Click here to see union news from Russia.
20230410 : French unions, in a almost unprecedented show of solidarity, continue their united front against the Macron government's undemocratic rollback of pensions. On 6 April 2 million workers demonstrated across the country. A further one-day strike will occur on the 13th. (Photo: Eric TSCHAEN/REA/FO) Click here to see union news from France.
20230417 : Next Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the Rana Plaza mass industrial homicide. On 24 April 2013, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed five garment factories, killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2,500. The global labour movement responded by pressing fashion brands to require minimum safety standards from their suppliers in Bangladesh, an agreement known as the Bangladesh Accord. (Photo: A. Biswas et. al.) Click here to read more about the Bangladesh Accord.
20230424 : Wage strikes have become common as inflation continues to erode workers' buying power. Huge strikes in Argentina, Canada, the Uk and elsewhere make the headlines but inflation has hit workers everywhere. Here BHM (Iceland's union for professionals) members march through the streets of Reykjavik. (Photo: BHM) Click here to read more union news from Iceland.
20230501 : Banana plantations usually provide housing for workers as part of their compensation. So when an employer Bandeco del Monte stops maintaining its housing, the effect on the (mostly women) workers is acute. These Costa Rican workers, members of SINTRAPYB, an IUF affiliate, are part of the struggle for dignity in housing for banana workers. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more union news from Costa Rica.
20230508 : In their traditional May Day march, Guatemalan drinks bottling workers, members of Stecsa, carried this photo of former IUF President Lage Andréasson. He led the Swedish Food Workers' Federation (Livs) between 1979 and 1991 and was the most beloved president of the IUF, a position he held from 1989 to 1993. Comrade Andréasson, who died in March at age 92, was a life-long advocate for solidarity between food and beverage workers around the world. (Photo: Stecsa) Click here to read more union news from Guatemala.
20230515 : STM members in Panama are campaigning, with the support of global union federation IndustriALL, for an end to union busting by Canadian mining company First Quantum Minerals. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Panama.
20230522 : USian Starbucks workers, like these marching in Louisville Colorado, have come to symbolize a resurgent US labour movement as hundreds of coffee shops across the country have been organized in the past very few years. (Photo: C. Goodwin) Click here to read more union news from the USA.
20230529 : Union retirees in the USA are prominent in the climate justice movement. (Photo: C. Goodwin) Click here to read more union news from the USA.
20230605 : Strikes by women workers in Switzerland have a long and proud history. An alliance of trade unions and feminist organizations are in the final stages of a mobilization for a national strike on 14 June. The Swiss union SGB Women's Commission statement reads: "During the pandemic, we applauded the workers in care, sales and cleaning. But wages and working conditions remain unchanged: women are still struggling with lower wages, low pensions, poor work-life balance, violence and discrimination,” (Photo: SGB) Click here to read more union news from Switzerland.
20230612 : Food and beverage workers around the world, like these NGG members in Germany, are amongst the most militant in the fight to regain purchasing power as inflation erodes the purchasing power of wages which have not increased substantially in years. (Photo: NGG) Click here to read more union news from Germany.
20230619 : On 14 June women across Switzerland struck against gender discrimination inside and outside the workplace. It was just the latest in a long series of national walkouts by women workers. (Photo: SGB-USS) Click here to read more union news from our Working Women page.
20230626 : Last week Costa Rican teachers, members of ANDE, marched through the streets of San Jose to signal their determination to defend the public education system in that country. (Photo: ANDE) Click here to read more union news from Costa Rica.
20230703 : Food workers are finding that their work is increasingly affected by global warming and other signs of humanity's impact on the natural environment. Canadian fishers increasingly find themselves fighting just to maintain their industry and way of life as fish stocks continue to decline. (Photo: FFAW-Unifor) Click here to read more union news from Canada.
20230710 : On 24 June gunmen entered a billiard hall in Choloma, Honduras, and murdered 13 Gildan garment factory workers, including four leaders of SITRAGSAM, the workers' union. Union members risked their lives to march in the funeral procession.(Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Honduras.
20230717 : The Korean Health and Medical Workers Union (KHMU) struck on 13-14 July. The action involved over 64,000 KHMU members from 127 Branches all over Korea. The government claims that the strike is "political" and therefore illegal. KHMU President Na responded in her address to a rally in Seoul: "If it is a political strike to demand that the people’s high health care costs be solved and that the public hospitals that saved people’s lives be saved, then shouldn’t this kind of political strike be held?"(Photo: UNI) Click here to read more union news from South Korea.
20230724 : Joining healthcare workers around the globe, Spanish home care workers struck last week, despite the threat of legal sanctions.(Photo: CGT) Click here to read more union news from Spain.
20230731 : British rail workers have been striking on and off for months now as their union, RMT, presses for a wage increase that matches the rate of inflation. RMT member Helen and her groom Jay, a comrade from sister rail union ASLEF, took a break from picketing last week to get married. (Photo: RMT) Click here to read more union news from the UK.
20230807 : Canada is experiencing a wave of rejected agreements as union members choose to strike rather than accept wage increases that do not keep pace with the rate of inflation. One of the high-profile strikes that has resulted is by grocery store workers in Toronto. (Photo: J4W) Click here to read more union news from Canada.
20230814 : Last week 2000 Turkish constructions workers in Tanzania struck. The workers are demanding months of unpaid wages for their work for a Turkish company on the Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway project. (Photo: Bianet) Click here to read more union news from Turkey.
20230821 : Malaysia’s National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers (NUTEAIW) is urging Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to comply with an ILO decision. The international body ruled in June 2022 that HICOM Automotive violated workers’ freedom of association. Since then the anti-union discrimination, including the sacking of union activists, has continued. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Malaysia.
20230828 : The National Network for Domestic Worker Advocacy, an IDWF affiliate, has played a key role in promoting the Domestic Worker Protection Bill in Indonesia. Last week they were pressing the cases of 5 abused workers seeking justice, and have mobilized a crowdfunding effort to support them. (Photo: IDWF) Click here to read more union news from Indonesia.
20230904 : Honduras is a country with a long history of military coups. So the recent election of President Xiomara Castro, a progressive, has seen huge mobilizations by trade unions and other mass organizations in an effort to warn off the right and pre-empt any attempt at ejecting her. Castro's government is committed to an end to impunity for those who have murdered, tortured and persecuted union activists, amongst others. (Photo: Rel UITA) Click here to read more union news from Honduras.
20230911 : On 7 September SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association, the largest union in India, celebrated the birthday of its deceased founder, Ela Bhatt, and 51 years of organizing marginalized women workers. (Photo: IUF) Click here to read more union news from India.
20230918 : Last week unions in Pakistan marked the 11th anniversary of the Ali Enterprises factory fire in which more than 250 workers, most of them women, died. (Photo: IndustriALL) Click here to read more union news from Pakistan.
20230925 : Wage adjustments continue to drive bargaining around the world as inflation bites. These USian workers at the University of Colorado, members of University Workers United (Colorado), a CWA affiliate, are just a few of the millions of union members pressing hard to preserve their purchasing power. (Photo: C.Goodwin/desrowVISUALS) Click here to read more union news from the USA.