Global Union News from IndustriALL

36 people, including rescue personnel, have been killed by three explosions on 25 and 28 February, at the Severnaya coalmine in Vorkuta, Russia.

IndustriALL affiliate the Independent Trade Union of Miners of Albania (SPMSH) saves 300 jobs in the Puka region.

The aerospace sector is booming in the Middle East and North Africa, and especially in Tunisia and Morocco. Although a relatively new sector, it already employs thousands of workers in both countries. Forecasts predict that the aerospace industry will continue to expand, given the geographical locations of the two countries, labour supply and government policies in attracting more investment to the sector.

Trade unions in Sri Lanka receive confirmation that they will be consulted on proposed changes to labour laws.

IndustriALL Global Union Indonesian affiliate, FSPMI, has adopted a 40 per cent quota for women in its leadership structures at its Congress on 10 February 2016.

Three coal miners were killed by poisonous gas in a mine in the Duki area in Pakistan on 19 February.

Maziyar Gilaninejhad of the Union of the Metalworkers and Mechanics of Iran (UMMI) talks about the challenges and struggles of Iranian workers, and the likely effects of the nuclear deal on the economy.

Women trade unionists from IndustriALL Global Union affiliates in Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines are to make gender equality and maternity protection a priority in 2016, following a series of strategy meetings this month.

Unwavering mobilization by the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation (SGSF) trade union and solidarity action by Japan's largest industrial union, UA Zensen, has seen 12 workers reinstated at Donglian Fashion Ltd in Bangladesh. 

At the end of January, IndustriALL Global Union and the Indian National Mineworkers Federation (INMWF) visited Chattarpur, in Madhya Pradesh, India, where Rio Tinto is waiting for approval to develop a 300-metre-deep open-pit diamond mine.  

Just after we managed to clear an attack by the employers on the right to strike at the ILO, unions in the UK and Spain have had to take up the fight. And it could spread to other countries too.

IndustriALL Global Union today picketed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland, in protest against Nissan’s sponsorship of the Rio 2016 Games.

Three trade union centres in Brazil are using a combination of dialogue and demonstration to advance the cause of Nissan workers. They organized a demonstration and a meeting with the Organizing Committee of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to be held in Rio de Janeiro. They demanded that Nissan should be made to observe the terms of its official sponsorship deal and not violate human rights in the company’s supply chain. 

IndustriALL Indian affiliates are comitted to continue organizing precarious workers in the textile, garment, leather, steel, mining and energy sectors.

In the heart of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country ravished by a torrid past and raging civil war and with little tolerance for different voices, the rise of the Travailleurs Unis dans les secteurs Miniers, Métallurgie, Energie et Chimie Worker’s Union (TUMEC) is an inspirational story of trade unionism.

Nissan is under fire from trade unions that say the car company is breaking Olympic guidelines for sponsors of the Rio 2016 Games. 

In a ruling on 16 February, a Spanish court acquitted the eight Airbus workers facing prison terms of eight years and three months each for having participated in a peaceful strike in 2010.

5,000 steel workers marched in Brussels on 15 February to call on the European Commission to act on the increasing threat to their jobs posed by imports of cheap steel from China.

Ten years after the mining homicide at Pasta de Conchos, Mexico, the government has still not conducted a thorough investigation into the real causes of the disaster, brought those responsible to justice, recovered the bodies or compensated the families of the victims.

Having come together for a workshop on 13 – 14  February in Manila, Philippines, cement unions developed a national plan on organizing and recruiting of cement workers and precarious workers in the sector.