When this issue of the Global Worker is published, the military has ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for nearly eleven months. 

At its third Congress on 15 September 2021, affiliates to IndustriALL Global Union voted unanimously to support the campaign of comprehensive economic sanctions organized by the Myanmar Labor Alliance against the military junta in Myanmar. The campaign calls for disinvestment from the country, and for all companies operating there to cease operations and place no new orders. 

Daniela Cavallo, president of the European and World Group Works Councils of Volkswagen, the largest global automotive manufacturer with more than 600,000 employees worldwide, has incredible power concentrated in her hands. 

COP26 met from 1-13 November 2021, and negotiated the Glasgow Climate Pact. What is in it, and what does it mean for workers?

Shipbreaking has been called the most dangerous job in the world. In countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan, workers face dangerous and precarious working conditions, with very little training, safety equipment and access to medical services. For this, they receive poverty wages. 

Some of the pillars that are key to building a strong union are workers unity and collective bargaining, says the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland (ATUSWA) which is affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union. The union organizing strategy is anchored on fighting for the unity of workers, workers’ rights, and living wages. In that sense, the union is living up to its slogan: Divided we beg, united we bargain.

After elections in Morocco earlier this year, a new coalition government is in power. Trade unions had been actively protesting the policies of the former government led by the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), in power for ten years. 

The National Federation of Unions of the Textile, Garment, Leather and Footwear Industries (FESITEX) in Nicaragua organize workers in textile, garment, leather and footwear companies at national level. FESITEX currently centres its attention on Nicaragua’s Free Trade Zones, organizing the so-called maquila workers. Some of the union’s main issues are negotiating ratification of ILO C190 and reform of the social security law.

After a series of local protests, both over- and underground, the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Ukraine (NPGU) is calling on members from all over the country to join an indefinite protest in Kiev to demand payment of wage arrears to workers of state-owned coal mines and proper financing of the sector. Unless authorities immediately eliminate the wage arrears, the protest will start on 15 December.

Millions of new jobs are being created in the renewable energy supply chain, in sectors represented by IndustriALL. How do unions make sure that these new jobs are good jobs?

On 29 November 2021, the two global union federations, IndustriALL Global Union and Public Services International, signed a two-year extension of the global framework agreement (GFA) with the French energy multinational EDF. The GFA is now valid until July 2024.

In the past two weeks, IndustriALL in South Asia organized a webinar for the region, as well as a workshop for Indian affiliates, to discuss the future of work and Just Transition.

Nearly eleven months into military rule in Myanmar, trade unions in the country say that the dictatorship must end immediately, as democratic rule is essential for protecting workers’ rights.

On 4 December, unions in Georgia discussed their response to climate change and future reforms in the global energy balance, within the context of a Just Transition. Due to travel restrictions, foreign experts and guests participated online, while Georgian unionists met in person.

One of the unions leading the Covid-19 vaccination campaign for workers in South Africa is the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU). The union’s tireless awareness and educational campaigns for workers to take the jab and adhere to Covid-19 protocols are paying off.

In 2017, the owners of the PT Freeport Grasberg copper mine in West Papua, Indonesia, provoked a strike of 8,300 workers. The company used the strike, which it said was illegal, as a pretext to fire 4,200. After years of legal disputes, the Indonesian Supreme Court has issued its final judgement: the strike was legal.

Brazilian glass workers’ union Sindicato dos Vidreiros held a two-hour protest on 1 December in São Paulo, Brazil, after O-I glass worker Antônio Carlos Tola Júnior was killed in a preventable workplace accident.

With women mineworkers raped and murdered underground, energy workers killed during night shifts whilst others are attacked and scarred for life with acid while at work, the South African workplace is a crime scene for gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH).

After Indonesia’s constitutional court ruled the so-called Omnibus law unconstitutional, Indonesian trade unions are reiterating their call on the government to suspend the controversial Job Creation Law and related regulations.

One worker was killed and five other injured at Marwar cement plant in Nagaur district of Rajasthan, India on 18 November 2021. Another worker was seriously injured in Maratha Cement Works in Maharashtra on 11 November 2021. Both plants are owned by Holcim subsidiary, Ambuja cement.