International unions

Trade union struggles outside the UK

In Georgia, workers challenge a Russian oligarch

Mikhail Fridman is one of the wealthiest men in Russia and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. He was included in the earliest lists of individuals sanctioned by the West for his complicity in the criminal invasion of Ukraine. Among his many investments is a Georgian mineral water company known as “Borjomi” - which is the spa town where the local water has been bottled for more than a century. The sulphurous taste of the water is not to everyone’s liking, but for decades the company has profited from the perception that Borjomi water has certain healing properties. After the collapse of...

Delegation to Ukraine reports back

Kelly Rogers, Ruth Cashman, and Tom Harris have just returned from a visit to Ukraine (3-8 May) with the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine. (More from Tom Harris here .) We are holding a report back meeting with these comrades speaking on Wednesday 25 May - 7pm, Marchmont Community Centre, Kings Cross, London. Facebook event . Eventbrite . Ukraine is being destroyed by a predatory Russian imperialism. As of 4 May the United Nations registers 3,280 civilian deaths during Russia’s military attack on Ukraine; of those, 231 were children. The UN office noted the true civilian death toll...

Rallying on 1 May... to back invasion

“For Peace, For Labour, For May” were the slogans under which the Federation of Independent Trade Union of Russia (FNPR) mobilised for this year’s May Day demonstrations.

Union convoy for Ukraine

A first trade union convoy to Ukraine will set off from an international union network conference in Dijon, France, on the weekend 23-24 April. The left-wing French union confederation Solidaires (France has several different “TUCs”) says that the convoy will be run by Solidaires with the left-wing union confederation CSP Conlutas from Brazil and a left-wing union grouping in Poland, OZZ Employee Initiative . “Our comrades from SUD rail [the rail unit of Solidaires] continue to play a leading role... Our aim is to get our initiative known as distinctly trade-union even if it uses, via the SNCF...

March for Ukraine on 9 April

Workers’ Liberty is actively building the trade union-organised march for Ukraine assembling at 12 noon, on Saturday 9 April, in Parliament Square, London. As Odessa burns, attacked last Sunday with Russian missiles, and Mariupol is surrounded and devastated by Vladimir Putin’s artillery, British workers need to stand up and show our opposition to this carnage. The Russian imperialist war, conducted with the intention of destroying Ukraine’s national rights, must be opposed by the left and the labour movement. As Solidarity goes to press, six national unions are backing this demonstration in...

India's workers fight against the odds

On 28 and 29 March, tens and maybe hundreds of millions of workers struck in India to halt and reverse the Modi government’s viciously anti-working class policies. The strike was sponsored by ten of the country’s big union federations — generally organised in India on party lines — with the glaring exception being the Hindu nationalist federation run by the Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The unions’ twelve demands include reversing anti-worker changes to labour law, regularisation of informal workers, expanding social security and halting privatisation of industries and banks. You can...

The world divided, the labour movement united

Last week, the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) passed a resolution strongly condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine. The resolution was not passed unanimously. The vote reflected divisions not only between countries but between classes as well. The ILO was founded following the First World War and has a uniquely tripartite structure that “gives an equal voice to workers, employers and governments”. No other UN body works in this way. A Workers’ Group of the ILO, closely linked to the international trade union movement, has a voice, as do groups representing...

Hungarian teachers strike for pay

Teachers in Hungary launched an indefinite strike from 16 March. The two education workers’ unions, PDSZ and PSZ, demand increased wages for teachers and everyone else working in education. They also want to place a cap on the weekly amount of mandatory hours spent teaching at 22 hours. Hungary has the second lowest pay for teachers in the EU after Bulgaria. The yearly take-home pay was 4,854 euros in 2018/2019. Meanwhile, teachers in Scotland take home an average of 32,195 euros. It also takes Hungarian teachers 42 years to reach the highest grade of pay in their field. Before 2014, teachers’...

Nationalise P&O! Reinstate the workers!

The CEO of P&O Ferries, which recently sacked 800 workers, has told a parliamentary committee that his company deliberately broke employment law to avoid a confrontation with trade unions. Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said P&O must reinstate the workers, because the government will legislate for the minimum wage to apply to ferry workers. P&O has taken on new hires at £5.50 an hour. On 29 March, P&O replied that it wouldn’t reinstate. On top of paying a lower hourly rate, it wants to pay workers only for the time actually on the ship, rather than a weekly rate for 24 weeks a year...

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