A two-week strike by garment workers at the Chinese-owned Cixing Knitting Factory in Myanmar has ended after the company agreed to reinstate seven sacked union leaders. 

150 million Indian workers took strike action in what is reported to be the biggest work stoppage in history.

In the Donetsk region of Ukraine, three female employees of the Kurakhivska coal mine of the state-owned coal-mining enterprise Selydivvugillya, went on hunger strike against wage arrears on 2 January 2019.

Unions will hold a series of protest and strike actions across the country until the government meets its social dialogue commitments.

A garment worker has been killed and another 50 injured after Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at around 5,000 protesting workers on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, on Tuesday 8 January.

Some 1,250 workers at National Grid in Massachusetts, USA, will be returning to work under a new 6-year contract, ending a lockout lasting more than six months. 

At least thirty people were killed, and several injured, when a mine collapsed in the northern parts of Afghanistan on 6 January.

Trade union leaders and members of three independent unions in Algeria were arrested and detained for several hours during protest in central Algiers on 27 December.

IndustriALL Global Union’s Turkish mining affiliate Maden-Is has reached a collective bargaining agreement with mining company, Tümad Madencilik, which is the first in the country’s growing gold mining industry.

The IndustriALL Global Union Diamond Network meeting 19-21 December in Johannesburg, South Africa, attended by 25 delegates from Belgium, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, India, South Africa and Zimbabwe resolved to improve working conditions in the diamond supply chain.

IndustriALL’s campaign for safer mines in Pakistan continues into 2019 as four miners were burnt to death and another miner seriously injured in a methane blast at a coal mine in Baolochistan’s Dukki district on 2 January. 

IndustriALL Global Union has condemned the misuse of Turkish legislation by local management to stop freedom of association and collective bargaining at Belgian-owned polyurethane company, Recticel.

“People are buzzing with enthusiasm – you can feel it in the air,” says Luisa María Alcalde cheerfully. It is truly the start of a new era for the people of Mexico: Andrés Manuel López Obrador was recently elected president, bringing hopes of democracy, gender equality, youth inclusion and the end of poverty and corruption.

It is also the first time a Mexican cabinet has achieved gender parity, with eight men and eight women of varying ages. Luisa María Alcalde is the perfect illustration of this new era. The 31-year-old is ready to head up one of the key ministries in the fight to protect workers’ rights – the ministry of labour and social welfare.

Having played a key role in the development of Germany’s industry, mine workers together bid an emotional good-bye to hard coal extraction at the country’s last operational coal mine in Bottrop on 21 December. 

Around 250 members of IndustriALL affiliate Selüloz-İş voted in favour of an agreement on 22 December, which contains important achievements.

At least 13 miners have been killed and ten wounded in a methane explosion at the CSM coal mine in Karvina in the Czech Republic on 20 December.

Meeting in Mumbai, India on 20 December 2018, IndustriALL Global Union’s Indian affiliates agreed to intensify their union building programme in the booming chemical and pharmaceutical industries in the country.

IndustriALL Global Union trade union affiliates representing garment workers at H&M have agreed upon a global dispute resolution mechanism with the Swedish fashion giant, as part of IndustriALL’s global framework agreement (GFA) with the company. 

Meeting in Mumbai, India on 18-19 December 2018, around 50 rubber union representatives from 15 countries in Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe engaged in a series of discussions to evaluate progress in implementing the Action Plan adopted by the World Rubber Conference in Pittsburgh, USA in September 2017.

Thirty-three participants aged between 20 to 35 years from ten Philippine trade unions affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union attended a national young workers’ training workshop. Sixty percent of the participants were young women.