IndustriALL Global Union is demanding that the president of its Indonesian affiliate, the Federation of Pharmaceutical and Health Workers Union (FARKES), is reinstated after being sacked from his job as a hospital assistant manager on 29 August.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliates from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh met to coordinate their campaigns for the rights of shipbreaking workers on 31 August and 1 September in Kathmandu, Nepal.

For seven years, IndustriALL Global Union affiliate, the Chemicals, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (CEPPWAWU) has been in a crisis. However, the convening of its 5th national congress is seen as an opportunity to mend the union.

At its meeting in Singapore on 30-31 August 2018, union representatives from BASF operations in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam took decisions to strengthen their regional network, adopt a new work programme and form a new coordination structure. The meeting also received reports from BASF operations in Japan and Singapore.

Leaders of the trade unions representing workers at Chile’s state-owned copper company Codelco are receiving threats over their union work.

IndustriALL Global Union marked a historic moment as Mexican union leader, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, returned to his country after 12 years in exile to be sworn in as senator, in a ceremony in Mexico City on 29 August. 

IndustriALL Global Union is calling on Mainetti, the world’s largest producer of fashion hangers, to stop union busting at its factory in Sri Lanka. 

The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) is opposing plans by the government of Trinidad and Tobago to close a refinery belonging to national oil company Petrotrin, with the loss of at least 2,500 jobs.

Colombia is one of the ten most dangerous countries in the world for workers and trade union leaders, where 19 trade union members have been murdered so far this year. IndustriALL Global Union and other federations have expressed their concerns to Colombia's president, Iván Duque.

As part of IndustriALL's living wage campaign garment unions in Cambodia and Mayanmar met last week on 20 - 22 August 2018 todevelop and agree on joint demands and strategy for national sectoral bargaining in the apparel and footwear sector.

On 24 April 2013, the world woke up to the reality of garment factory conditions in Bangladesh when more than a thousand workers were killed and over two thousand injured after the Rana Plaza garment factory complex, supplying western brands, collapsed. 

Today, on 24 August, after a two-week trial, the Sovetsky district court of the city of Minsk unjustly punished Gennady Fedynich and Ihar Komlik, leaders of the IndustriALL Global Union’s affiliate Belarusian radio and electronics industry workers’ union (REP), by undermining fundamentals of rule of law and fair trial. Increasing anger and outrage emerge among IndustriALL affiliates worldwide as Fedynich is a substitute member of the executive committee.

4,500 workers at the Uljanik shipbuilding company in Croatia have taken strike action after the financially troubled company failed to pay their wages for July.

Unions representing over 10,000 agricultural and industrial workers from the rubber plantations owned by Firestone-Liberia are demanding living wages, better housing, safe drinking water, access to electricity, and an end to discrimination and unfair labour practices.

Workers at five Alcoa sites in Western Australia have voted almost unanimously to take indefinite strike action after 20 months of negotiations with Alcoa failed to provide a guarantee of no forced redundancies.

IndustriALL Global Union affiliate E tū is demanding a fair collective bargaining agreement for workers at Sistema Plastics in Auckland, New Zealand, but has reached a standoff with the intransigent management who refuse to offer any additional increase in wages or conditions. Sistema is part of US-based Newell Brands, a producer of plastic storage containers.

A new project aimed at young people has just been launched in Latin America and the Caribbean. IndustriALL and German donor organization, DGB Bildungswerk, are committed to working together for youth empowerment.

IndustriALL Global Union is backing workers at Ciner in Wyoming, USA, where company management has intensified its pressure on employees to vote against union representation in an election taking place later this week.

When workers went on strike to demand permanent jobs and better working conditions at ITB Plastics the company called in the South African Police Service who arrested 20 workers. Instead of listening to workers grievances, the company chose intimidation.

Fifty trade union leaders from the ‘macro sector’ of manufacturing industries across Latin American and the Caribbean met for the first time from 13 to 15 August in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Their aim was to discuss the future world of work and come up with joint initiatives.