Safety, dignity and equality for all women”

On 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) renews its struggle for a world free from violence, exploitation and war, recalling that in 2025 we will also celebrate 80 years of international trade union commitment alongside workers around the world.

Violence against women is never an individual or private matter. It is rooted in the power structures of capitalism, economic and social inequalities, patriarchal culture and the militarisation of territories. Wars, occupations and armed conflicts disproportionately affect women, increasing poverty, instability and insecurity. Similarly, economic exploitation, low wages, precarious work, lack of rights and the reduction of public services fuel violence and discrimination.

The WFTU fights for a world where women’s dignity and safety are top priorities, where work is safe and fairly paid, where every woman can live free from violence and fear. On this day, we remember in particular the situation in Palestine, where women today are suffering genocide and have been suffering the consequences of war, occupation and Israel’s policies of oppression for 77 years.

Trade union organisations affiliated to the WFTU have always maintained that the fight against violence against women is closely linked to the fight for workers’ rights, decent wages, safe housing, public education, healthcare and accessible social services. No woman can be free without access to economic resources, social protection and freedom from war and systemic violence.

On this day, the WFTU reaffirms:

• The need for effective legislation against all forms of violence, discrimination and exploitation;
• The right of women to safe work, decent wages and equal opportunities;
• The fight against imperialist wars and all forms of occupation;
• The right to education, contraception, social spaces and free public services, which are fundamental tools for women’s autonomy and protection;
• The need to combat patriarchy and the culture of violence, including through trade union campaigns, information campaigns and concrete actions on the ground.

The WFTU and its affiliates call on all trade unions and workers to mobilise, build international solidarity and support concrete actions against violence against women, predatory capitalism, exploitation and wars. Only collective struggle and the participation of workers can create a world where safety, dignity, equality and freedom are a reality for all women.

80 years of international trade union struggle.

Stop violence against women. Stop exploitation and war. Freedom and justice for Palestine.    Safety, dignity and equality for all women!

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The NALC has organized over 250 Fight Like Hell rallies across the country, all protesting against multiple threats to the union, including Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” DOGE planning to lay off ten thousand workers, and the Trump Administration’s ambitions to privatize the USPS.

A privatized USPS would create a myriad of problems for both the American people and Letter Carriers. Currently, the USPS is under the jurisdiction of Congress, which is held accountable by representatives elected by the American people. A privatized USPS would only be held responsible to private shareholders, who will most definitely reel back services in both rural and low-service areas, areas that need the USPS the most. In Seattle, a privatized USPS would mean higher shipping prices, an issue that would only contribute to Seattle’s high cost of living compared to other cities.

After speeches and remarks from representatives of multiple labor unions, the NALC Branch 79 rally attendees, both letter carriers and NALC supporters in the hundreds, marched around Westwood Center in West Seattle in the cold, dreary Seattle weather, with a resounding message:

THE US MAIL IS NOT FOR SALE!

The post NALC Branch 79 Rallies to “Fight Like Hell” in Seattle, WA first appeared on Labor Today.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Local 555 represents over 35,000 workers across Oregon, Southwest Washington, and Idaho. About 4,500 of those are Fred Meyer employees. The union workers voted overwhelmingly for a strike sanction on August 13^th.

Before the vote, UFCW President Dan Clay slammed Fred Meyer’s Corporate, claiming that, “Fred Meyer continues to violate the law and their commitments made to Local 555. The most outrageous examples include refusing to provide essential information for current negotiations and refusing to process grievances, despite a longstanding history of doing so over the many decades between Fred Meyer and Local 555.”

The strike comes after UFCW Local 555 revoked their endorsement of a corporate merger between Kroger (Fred Meyer’s parent company) and Albertsons due to the flagrant ULPs. UFCW Local 555 was the only UFCW chapter that supported the merger.

In a statement to KOIN 6 News, UFCW Local 555 Communications Coordinator Miles Eshaia said,

“On August 15, Kroger issued a press release, saying that ‘Fred Meyer Delivers on Their Promise to Accelerate Associate Wages.’ For Fred Meyer to say they have delivered on their promise to accelerate associate wages is misleading at best. They have not agreed to any increases other than those negotiated by UFCW 555 as a result of the 1-day strike in 2021. They have a proven track record of not living up to their obligations and are falling short at the bargaining table. We were forced to file a federal lawsuit asking the courts to force Fred Meyer to live up to their commitments in the current contracts with UFCW 555. As a result, we are no longer in support of the Kroger-Albertsons merger for Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.”

Negotiations between the union and Fred Meyer’s corporation are ongoing.

The post Portland Fred Meyer Workers Strike Amid Unfair Labor Practices first appeared on Labor Today.

“We are a group of Boulder County employees who are forming a union to have a strong and positive voice at work. Like you, we work to provide crucial services to the residents of Boulder County. We are proud to work at Boulder County and want to make it the best workplace it can be. We are building a strong worker-led, democratic union which is run by and for its members.”

BCEU

In 2023, Colorado legislature enacted bill SB22-230 that allowed public employees in a county of more than 7,500 the right to collective bargaining among a number of other benefits and stipulations. The BCEU started out as the “Committee to Organize Boulder County” and in 2020 they began organizing and made a Better Boulder County survey in order to gather information on issues workers were facing. In the fall of 2022, BCEU members requested their supervisors and managers be informed of the Boulder County Neutrality Policy that was adopted in 2007.

The culmination of four years of organizing led the organizing committee to vote for affiliation with the CWA in June 2023 over the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) who was also working to organize the public employees. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment is currently working with the union to schedule a time and date to hold the election.

The post Boulder County Workers Use New Legislation to Unionize first appeared on Labor Today.

All this is taking place with the tolerance and support that Israel receives from the USA, the EU and their allies to continue the bloodshed in Palestine. The suffering Palestinian people are “fed up” with announcements of support.

We repeat, however, that this is not enough. The brutality that is unfolding is to such an extent that immediate, decisive and drastic measures are required. International conventions and resolutions must finally be implemented. The international community must actively demand that Israel put an end to the massacre it is committing.

The WFTU expresses its solidarity with students in the US, Europe and elsewhere, who despite the repression, have flooded dozens of universities demanding an end to the massacre and the non-engagement of their countries in the crime against the Palestinian people. It reiterates its call to its affiliates and friends to intensify all actions in solidarity with Palestine through mass demonstrations, mobilizations, protests, strikes, initiatives and struggles of various forms, using the means of military, commercial, academic and institutional boycotts.

The post WFTU Statement on the Premeditated Attack on Rafah first appeared on Labor Today.

The issues at hand revolved around not just pay raises that make it possible for the nurses to continue to reside in Staten Island, but also safe staffing—a sufficient number of nurses on staff to give patients the best care possible—which has been an all-too-common fight in the age of for-profit medicine. Going into this fight, the SIUH nurses have talked about lack of retention seeing as wages in Staten Island haven’t kept pace with the rest of New York City.

A ratification vote will begin on April 3rd, after the bargaining committee announces the deal. Full details have not been released yet, but NYSNA has announced that the 3-year deal includes wage increases totaling 22.12% throughout the deal as well as, “improvements to safe staffing standards and stronger safe staffing enforcement. The agreement adds nurse staffing on units that need help and includes an expedited process for creating staffing standards in new units.”

SIUH nurses on the bargaining committee voice their approval including Elaine Minew, RN who in the press release announcing the Tentative Agreement said, “the safe staffing improvements we won in our tentative agreement make Staten Island a better place to live, work, and receive care.” John Vuolo, RN also said, “for too long, Staten Island University Hospital nurses have struggled to stay on our island because our pay was so much lower than what we could make for doing the same work in Brooklyn or Manhattan. Now that we’ve won pay parity, we can afford to stay here in our community where we want to be, caring for our neighbors. That’s a victory for all of Staten Island.”

It cannot be lost on us that this struggle took place shortly after Northwell announced a $19.2 billion merger with Nuvance Health while cutting costs by eliminating pharmacists on the hospital floors of SIUH, forcing nurses away from patient bedsides to find needed medications. This profit-first “healthcare” shines a light on the need for a not-for-profit National Health Service here in the United States. Labor United Educational Leagues resolutely supports the nurses at Staten Island University Hospital and calls for a just healthcare system featuring a not-for-profit National Health Service.

The post NYSNA Agrees to Tentative Agreement at Staten Island University Hospital After Nurses Authorize Strike first appeared on Labor Today.

FISE, the World Federation of Teachers Union, an affiliated member of WFTU, denounces the new murderous pogrom of Israel against the Palestinians.

The murderer-state of Israel, under the pretext of “counter-terrorism” is carrying out a huge military operation in Palestine, focusing on the Jenin refugee camp, where some 18,000 Palestinians live, resulting in dozens of dead and wounded and 3,000 people already having fled.

We also denounce the unacceptable position of the US-NATO-EU-Governments who talk about the “right of self-defence” of the Israeli occupying forces.

FISE and teachers’ unions around the world support the heroic people of Palestine and their right to defend their country against foreign occupation with all the necessary means. The peoples who are fighting for their present and future are not terrorists!

THE PEOPLES WILL DEFEAT BARBARISM!

We demand:

STOP the military operation in Jenin, as well as end of the Israeli occupation.

The creation of a single independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the     1967 borders, with the people to decide for their present and future.

The right of return of all Palestinian refugees to their homes, based on the relevant UN resolutions.

The immediate release of all Palestinian and other political prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

THE SECRETARIAT

The post WFTU-FISE Denounces The New Attack Of Israel Against The Palestinian People first appeared on Labor Today.

Colleagues, we wish you great success in the 18-day strike, in different cities, which you have announced and which you plan to complete on February 8.

The struggle for the teachers’ working conditions, the struggle for stable labour relations, permanence, security, salaries that cover the needs of workers concerns the world trade union movement and it is generalized, it concerns the world working class and is unrelenting until the overthrow of the system which breeds and reproduces the exploitation of man by man.

We are on your side, we support your struggles!!

THE SECRETARIAT

The post FISE Statement of Support For Teachers Strike in Portugal first appeared on Labor Today.

130 former employees of the VK Garment Factory (VKG) are suing Tesco in a historic case in the UK for claimed negligence and unjust enrichment. Between 2017 and 2020, the employees produced F&F clothing for adults and children, including jeans, denim jackets, and other garments, for Tesco’s Thai division.

The claims made by the former factory workers were investigated into by Guardian, who also spoke with 21 of them in Mae Sot. Some of their working descriptions are:

1. Working from 8am to 11pm for as little as £3 per day, with just one day off per month.

2. According to meticulous records kept by supervisors that were obtained by the Guardian, the majority of the employees on their lines received daily wages of less than £4 and were only compensated for earnings. At that time, an 8-hour day’s minimum pay in Thailand was £7.

3. One man claimed to have need 13 stitches after cutting into his arm while carrying a dangerously heavy interlocker machine. Another claimed that when producing F&F denim jackets, he severed the tip of his index finger while using a button machine.

4. Many claimed that factory supervisors yelled at and threatened them if they did not continue to put in extra effort and meet goals.

5. More than a dozen of the workers who were questioned claimed that the firm opened bank accounts for them before seizing the cards and passwords, allowing them to pretend to be paid the minimum wage while actually receiving significantly less in cash.

6. Overcrowded rooms with concrete floors and unclean pond water in a bucket served as the only lodging options in the factory complex. Most rooms, according to the workers, only had a curtain for a door

7. Large F&F orders required them to work through the night for 24 hours at least once a month, and they eventually became so worn out that they passed out at their sewing table.

The WFTU is on the side of all the peoples of the world and fights for the defence of trade union and democratic freedoms and the inalienable right of peoples to decide freely and democratically on their present and future.

The post THAILAND: Employees who produced F&F jeans for Tesco in Thailand were “locked in effective forced labor.” first appeared on Labor Today.

First of all, I would like to thank for the invitation and the possibility  to attend yours historic 42nd National Congress.

I especially thank the General Secretary of AITUC, Comrade Amarjgeet Kaur  a prominent leadership figure of the Indian but also the international class labor movement, who we have the honor of being a vice-president of our World Federation.

On behalf of  more than  105 million members of the World Federation of Trade Unions from 133 countries from all corners of the earth,  I convey to you and through you to the workers of India, militant class greetings.

AITUC has been and remains, one of the foundation blocks upon which the strong edifice of our World Federation is built. Since the establishment of the WFTU in 1945, it has steadily and continuously participated actively, occupying a leading and irreplaceable role in the development of the World class-oriented trade union movement.

That is why it rightfully leads our regional office for Asia and the Pacific and the regional coordinator Comrade Sri Kumar is a member of the Secretariat and one of the deputy G.S. of our Federation.

In the historical records of WFTU are recorded many names of important trade unionist leaders of the AITUC, who served the World Trade Union Movement through important posts.   I mention only a few of them, like S. A. Dange founding leader, member of the executive committee, Debkumar Ganguli, founding member, Secretary for Asia Pacific and Deputy General Secretary,  Sukomal Sen, General Secretary of  TUI Public Servants, Indrajit Gupta and KL Mahendra, WFTU  Presidents and of course com. Mahatevan who served for many years as coordinator of the regional office and one of the deputy secretaries of WFTU.

To those fighters and so many others I haven’t named to whom we owe, honor and glory.

Dear comrades, delegates of the 42nd National Congress of AITUC.

The world is going through a phase of extreme intensification of political, economic, and military antagonisms, aiming at controlling and exploiting the economic resources of our planet.

The peoples pay the price of the imperialist wars and interventions.

After the Russian invasion in Ukraine the USA, the NATO and the EU they attempt to present the situation as a war between liberalism and authoritarianism.  Thinking that this way, their own criminal role in the developments can be hushed up.  But  so many bloody  wars and interventions to promote their own selfish imperialistic interests are clearly visible.   Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yugoslavia, Cyprus and so many other places.   The world peace is not being protected by even more militarism or patronage of all kinds of far-right nationalists and fascists.  It cannot be based on blockades, sanctions and economic wars.

WFTU is fighting for peace, for an end to this war and to imperialist wars and interventions in generally, for the dissolution of NATO and all military coalitions and for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The crisis of capitalism it deepens and strengthens, resulting the open violation of democratic and trade union rights,  the deterioration of working and living conditions and the dramatic widening of social inequalities, poverty, and exploitation. The results of the war of NATO and Russia in Ukraine, attempted to be loaded to the shoulders of the working class.

The sharp and uncontrollable increase in prices of all basic necessities, dissipates the living standard of the working people families at the same time that multinationals and monopolies are reaching new records in profits.

For WFTU it is clear that there is only one path to follow and this is the path of dignity, the path of the struggles.

The workers refuse to pay for the capitalist crisis and the imperialist wars, through remarkable struggles, strikes and mobilizations, all over the world.  WFTU affiliates are at the forefront of these struggles for the satisfaction of the contemporary needs of the workers at all levels: salary, employment, security, culture, and mental. To defend the democratic and trade union freedoms, the collective bargaining and the stable, permanent, and agreements-regulated labor.     The sharpening of state repression and authoritarianism,   is the response of the bourgeois governments to the just popular demands. Unfortunately with the cooperation or intolerance of surrendered trade union leaders together with yellow unions.

The arrest of the recently elected Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC),  Luca Visentini brings to the surface one more time the issue of corruption within the Trade Unions and the necessity to intensify the struggles  to protect their autonomy and their class orientation, away from bureaucracy, corruption, and manipulation by the capital and employers.    In this particular case the arrest linked with the cover-up of terrible crimes committed against thousands of workers, many of whom lost their lives during their daily work.

The incorporation of the leadership of ITUC and ETUC to the neoliberal, anti-labor policies, the absence of a substantial reaction on its part, clearly coexists with the corruption and use of Trade Union positions for purposes foreign to the class interests of the workers.

Dear comrades, brothers and sisters

Concluding my intervention, I would like to wish you every success in the works, of your congress.  I am sure that with your pure class orientation and the militant guidelines of the WFTU 18th Congress, your future initiatives and struggles will meet  the demands and the  expectations of the working class of India.

I assure you that we watch your daily militant action  and you can always rely on the support and solidarity of the WFTU. For the defense of the political, social and Trade Union rights  of Indian workers,  against capitalist barbarity, for a world free of wars and interventions, without any kind of discrimination and man by man exploitation.

• Long live the working class straggles for peace and social justice
• Long live AITUC and the working class of India
• Long live the WFTU

Thank you

The post WFTU General Secretary Pambis Kyritsis Speech in 42nd National Congress Of AITUC India first appeared on Labor Today.