Ten trade unions have filed a complaint against the Mexican government with the International Labour Organisation for repeated violations of freedom of association.

IndustriALL Global Union mining affiliates in the Philippines, together with other unions and workers’ representatives in the sector, have formed a network to advocate mine workers’ interests at the national and local level, following a workshop in Tagaytay City on 5-6 June.

Iranian security forces arrested and imprisoned dozens of workers on 12 June who were protesting against months of unpaid wages.

Thousands of workers picketed outside Eskom offices in Johannesburg on 14 June to demand a 15 per cent wage increase and reject a no-increase announcement by state-owned energy company Eskom, who is arguing that it is broke.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in the Philippines, as well as other workers’ groups in the mining sector, took part in the regional mining industry tripartite council planning meeting for the Caraga Region on 5 and 6 June 2018 in the city of Tagaytay.  

During the 107th Session of the International Labour Conference, held in Geneva on 28 May to 8 June, issues important for the labour movement, like a convention for gender based violence in the world of work and violations of ILO conventions, were discussed. 

Sister Lee Young-joo, former general secretary of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, has been released from prison on suspended sentence on the morning of 14 June 2018. She has spent almost six months in the Seoul Detention Centre.

On 11 June, workers at Protisa Peru mobilised to protest against job discrimination and the company’s systematic persecution of trade unionists.

The deaths at Sibanye Stillwater operations in 2018 go beyond previous years with 11 killed in 2016, and nine in 2017. This year the death toll is already at 18 showing that the company’s operations are increasingly becoming death-traps for mineworkers.

Five hundred outsourcing workers at one of Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper mills will go on a three-day strike starting on 13 June.

Workers of Luminous Power Technologies owned by Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management rallied protesting against vindictive actions, caste abuses of the management and demanded the right to freedom of association.

Global unions rallied outside the United Nations in Geneva on 6 June 2018 to protest against the persecution of independent trade unions in Algeria.  

The annual International Labour Conference (ILC) started in Geneva on 28 May, where Director-General Guy Ryder opened the conference calling for strong action to end violence and harassment at the workplace. Delegates from governments, workers and employers from the 187 ILO Member states came together to negotiate the adoption of a possible Convention or Recommendation on violence and harassment at work.

The number of countries with arbitrary arrests and detention of workers increased from 44 in 2017 to 59 in 2018, and freedom of speech was constrained in 54 countries.

African countries export cotton to Asia where it is spun into yarn and made into fabric from which garments are made and sold to big brands in Europe and the USA. Charity and thrift shops then buy the clothes after they have been worn and discarded. On the bottom of the consumption chain are African countries that import bales of the used clothes, and even underwear, for sale in the thriving informal markets common on the continent.

The Ericsson trade union network of South and South East Asia met in New Delhi on 1 June to discuss the trade union situation, challenges and critical issues faced by workers at Ericsson plants in the region.

IndustriALL Global Union is questioning Glencore’s reporting on fatalities at its Zambia mining operations.

The renewed agreement reaffirms the labour and social commitments of one of the largest publicly traded Russian-based oil and gas companies, employing more than 100,000. Lukoil accounts for more than 2 per cent of the world's oil production and own around 1 per cent of the hydrocarbon reserves.

In a major step forward in an ongoing unionization drive, a group of flight line mechanics at the Boeing factory in Charleston, South Carolina have voted to join IndustriALL Global Union affiliate the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

IndustriALL Brazilian affiliate FUP temporarily suspended their 72-hour national strike when the court threatened the union with an extortionate fine of 2 million reais (US$540,000) per day, a clear violation of trade union rights.