As retailers close shops around the world, garment factories are shutting down at an alarming rate with devastating impacts for garment workers.

On 20 March, Erlan Baltabay, leader of the Independent Oil and Energy Workers’ Union in Kazakhstan, was released from prison.  

Even though Peru’s government has introduced a curfew and state of emergency, mineworkers still have to go to work without any virus-protection measures. 

With major halts in auto production, the tyre industry is largely reducing work. Temporary plant closures are announced by market leading tyre companies who employ thousands of IndustriALL members.

The national union of workers in the coal industry (Sintracarbón, which is affiliated to IndustriALL in Colombia) voted in favour of a strike at the multinational Cerrejón 50 days after failing to reach an agreement in the negotiations to renew the current collective agreement.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), is carrying out campaigns to educate workers about the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the textile, garment, leather and shoe factories, and other workplaces where the union organizes.

Local union president, Dalibor Antanasijević, has been harassed for his union work and subsequently dismissed from his job at auto supplier Magna Seating in Serbia.

A one-day picket of Electronics Industry Employees’ Union Northern Region (EIEUNR) forced Infineon Technologies (Kulim) Sdn Bhd to return to the negotiation table to continue bargaining for a collective agreement. The employer had declared a deadlock in the negotiations on 25 February.

The Oilfields Workers of Trinidad and Tobago is calling on the multinational BP to renegotiate a new pricing formula agreed with state-owned energy company which is damaging the fragile island economy. Companies in the petrochemical and manufacturing sector are struggling to cope with the sharp increase in price, and this has led to plant closures and job losses.

A former Saint-Gobain Crystals and Detectors worker in Bangalore, India, Jayaraj Mathangi, was fired for abstenteeism after developing severe health problems due to hazards he was exposed to at work.

Health and safety is a constant worry among miners in Myanmar. Mining Workers Federation of Myanmar (MWFM), the IndustriALL Global Union affiliate representing 7,500 miners in the country, is calling on the government and employers to improve health and safety, like ensuring emergency exits, clean drinking water and fire extinguishers at the worksites.

Speaking at a public meeting organized by IndustriALL Global Union at the Swiss Press Club in Geneva on Friday 6 March, former Brazilian president Lula called for coordinated global action to confront inequality.

Council of Global Unions Joint Statement

Unions, feminist and migrant groups in Chile marked this year’s International Women’s Day with a mass march in Santiago, raising awareness of  inequality, gender based violence and pushing for a gender equality agenda.

The global outbreak of the Coronavirus is slowing down the economy and eliminating thousands of jobs in the global supply chain in South East Asia. Cambodia and Myanmar are among the most affected countries in the region.

378 mineworkers were rescued on 10 March after being trapped underground for nine hours. The workers were trapped when a UV 72 machine used to transport workers and materials underground caught fire at Sibanye Stillwater Simunye Shaft in Rustenburg.

Yudi Suseno was one of 50 participants in the Asia Pacific youth exchange programme in Malaysia in October 2019, and has now begun to play key role in his union in Indonesia.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), is challenging the dismissal last year of 163 workers at Scaw McKinnon Chain in Vereeniging, near Johannesburg.

In Antananarivo the International Women’s Day (IWD) demonstration of Malagasy unions was the culmination of a week of training and capacity building on gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV).

Helping unions develop their organizing capacity is a priority for IndustriALL Global Union and industriAll Europe. Together, they have produced a practical guide to support and facilitate affiliates’ efforts to recruit more workers and build stronger unions in South-East Europe.