Latest news with #laborunion
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Trump takes ‘wrecking ball' to workers' rights amid global ‘freefall', new report says
Workers' rights across every continent in the world are in a 'freefall', according to the 2025 Global Rights Index released by the International Trade Union Confederation, the largest trade union federation in the world. The index noted workers' rights and democracy around the world are often under attack by 'far-right politicians and their unelected billionaire backers. Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the US or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world.' In the US, the index cited 'the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking'. These actions, according to the index, include stripping union protections from 47,000 workers at the Transportation Security Administration, attempting to revoke civil service protections for large swaths of federal employees and firing a member of the National Labor Relations Board, leaving it without a quorum. Luc Triangle, secretary general of the International Trade Union Confederation, said the report covers events up until March 2025, but these trends have continued to worsen in the US since then. The Trump administration has also drastically cut staff at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, fired a board member of the Federal Labor Relations Authority and issued an executive order revoking collective bargaining rights for the majority of federal employees. 'In more and more countries, we have elected leaders that once they are elected democratically, they are taking action against democratic values,' said Triangle. 'The first target of those leaders in many countries is they attack trade human rights and workers' rights, because we are the biggest defenders of democratic values and in that sense also their biggest opponents as largest social movement in the world.' Three out of five global regions saw conditions for workers' rights worsen, including the Americas and Europe hitting their worst scores on the index since it was established in 2014. Only seven out of 151 nations surveyed by the index had a top-tier rating on workers' rights, down from 18 in 2015. Workers' access to justice was restricted in 72% of nations surveyed, the worst on record, 87% of countries violated the right to strike and 80% violated the right to collective bargaining. The worst countries for workers, according to the report, are Bangladesh, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tunisia and Turkey. Only three countries, Australia, Mexico and Oman, saw their ratings improve from 2024. Triangle warned that the billionaire backers of these politicians have come out of the shadows and only expanded their wealth and control over important parts of society, in a 'coup' by billionaires of democratic institutions globally that are driving these deteriorating conditions for workers' rights. 'In the last four or five years with Covid and increased inflation, people lost purchasing power and that's the breeding ground for extremist parties to get voters to vote for extremist parties, which actually don't offer any solution for the working people,' said Triangle. The federation of unions is pushing a campaign for democracy that delivers in opposition to the framework model used by Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the US, and other billionaires and far-right political leaders around the world. 'The five richest people in the world more than doubled their wealth over the last five years, while 60% of the population of the world got poorer. We are investing nearly US$3tn as a world into arms and into weapons and there is unfair taxation. So if we want to find the money for delivering to working people to what they really need – good wages, more jobs, rights, social protections – it's a matter of political choice.'
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Postal worker rallies commence across Canada
CTV's Kamil Karamali on the postal worker rallies that are happening across the country as negotiations have broken down between both sides.
CTV News
6 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Canada Post puts forward ‘final offers' to union
Canada Post said it notched nearly $1.3 billion in operating losses last year as the beleaguered institution laid out its 'final offers' to the union representing 55,000 workers after negotiations resumed on Wednesday. CTV's John Musselman reports.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
South African Union Sets Deadline for Passenger Rail Pay Talks
South Africa's United National Transport Union threatened industrial action unless wage arbitration with the country's passenger rail agency succeeds next month. UNTU's 2025/26 pay talks with the state-owned Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa moved to the third-party Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in April, but the process has not made any progress, the union said in a statement Wednesday posted on X.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump pardons a labor union leader on the eve of sentencing for failing to report gifts
WASHINGTON — A labor union leader who pleaded guilty to failing to report gifts from an advertising firm was pardoned by President Donald Trump on the eve of his sentencing hearing Wednesday, court records show. James Callahan, of Lindenhurst, New York, was general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers when he accepted — but failed to properly report — receiving at least $315,000 in tickets to sporting events and concerts and other amenities from a company that the union used to place ads.
