IndustriALL Global Union recently brought together key union leaders from metal, shipbuilding and energy sectors in Bahrain to look at ways of developing sectorial unions, in cooperation with the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions (GFBTU).

Leaders from three of IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliates in Belarus reported widespread violations of trade union rights in the country, during their meeting with IndustriALL assistant general secretary, Monika Kemperle on 29 April in the capital Minsk.

Industrial Chile, affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, and the Confederation of Copper Workers (CTC) are sponsoring a bill to declare the Chemical and Mining Company of Chile (Sociedad Química Y Minería de Chile S. A. – SQM) and the production and commercialization of lithium to be a strategic national resource.

IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliate, the Mining and Metallurgy Trade Union of Kyrgyzstan (MMTUK), held a series of workshops for around 80 union members in different regions of Kyrgyzstan during the last week of April. Organizing and the ways to strengthen solidarity in the trade union were the main themes.

Oil and gas unions from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) met in Beirut, Lebanon from 21 to 22 April, as the drop in global oil prices continues to impose new challenges on oil workers and unions in the region. 

On 26 April 2016 union representatives met with Total company management in Paris, France to discuss further implementation and monitoring of the global framework agreement between IndustriALL and French-based energy giant Total signed in January 2015.

Yangon’s South Dagon Industrial estate (Zone 3) is a labyrinth of metal workshops, stores and small factories. Nobody even knows the number of workers employed there. Some say 10,000 people, others 20,000.

The estate is an anvil of heat, dust and heavy metal, which is cut, machined, welded and hammered to order. From bolts, to plates, pylons, rigs and pipes, it is a testament to Burmese industry and ingenuity.

The Rio Tinto global union network met in Brisbane, Australia this week, bringing together nearly fifty union leaders from Rio Tinto in eleven countries to discuss recent developments and update the network’s program of action.

IndustriALL affiliates around the world took to the streets to celebrate May Day 2016, calling out for a living wage and a stop to precarious work.

Thirty-three women leaders from twelve IndustriALL affiliates in the Philippines completed a two-day workshop on Gender Equality in Collective Bargaining, held in San Mateo, Rizal from 25-26 April 2016. 

IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliates in Madagascar say they are determined to stand up for the collective rights of workers against multinational companies in a country where, despite enormous mineral wealth, 70 per cent of the population live on less than US$2 a day.

IndustriALL Global Union has expressed its solidarity with around 40,000 Verizon communications workers in the United States that have been on strike since 13 April.

More than 50 participants from 19 unions attended an extended IndustriALL Global Union Sub-Saharan Regional Executive Committee (REXCO) meeting in Accra, Ghana on 21 April. 

Over 40 participants from 15 countries took part in the first meeting of the Ericsson global trade union network, organized by IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union in Nyon, Switzerland on 26-27 April.

IndustriALL Global Union and its affiliate, the Nuclear Power and Industry Workers Union of Ukraine, held the International Nuclear Workers’ Union Network (INWUN) meeting in Kiev, Ukraine to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy at Chernobyl.

Steel workers in the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago are standing up and fighting for their jobs and their rights in the midst of the steel crisis gripping the country.

28 April is International Day to Commemorate Dead and Injured Workers. The day is celebrated around the world, and is also called International Workers’ Memorial Day, the Day of Mourning, or World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

36 women delegates from IndustriALL affiliates in Sub-Saharan region gathered in Accra, Ghana to discuss challenges faced by women of the region and the ways to overcome them.

In a national workshop on the living wage held on 22 and 23 April 2016 in Dhaka, Bangladeshi unions resolved to intensify their campaign for a living wage.

On 24 April, workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan remembered the dead and demanded improved factory safety, and punishment to those responsible for the garment factory tragedy in Bangladesh three years ago.