Trade union rights

PSI's affiliate SES (the trade union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services) organized a press meeting to protest the unlawful temporary layoffs of public employees, declaration of state of emergency and the decrees suspending democracy and the parliamentary system. They have sent PSI the following report of the situation.

The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) concluded a week-long visit to South Korea and witnessed first-hand the ongoing criminalisation of labour union rights in the country. Here is the ITF president Paddy Crumlin's account of this trip.

Further to the re-launch conference in October 2015, the Organization of Trade Unions of West Africa (OTUWA) organised a strategic planning workshop with the primary objective of developing a strategic plan to guide OTUWA's engagements, operations and activities in the next five years. The workshop was held from May 11-13, 2016 at Hotel De Bently, Utako, Abuja, Nigeria.

Through the testimonies collected, it was found that these workers are not seen as victims, although they also lost their homes, clothes and food. In addition, they had to leave their families to meet their obligations in the public sector.

It is with much concern that PSI has received news from Turkey indicating that thousands of public workers have been arrested, suspended and removed from their jobs over the last few days, as a follow-up to last weekend’s attempted coup.

Oyo state public service workers held a rally on 15 June to protest unpaid salaries and proposed privatization of some schools.

Turkish scholars have been subject to heavy pressures and constraints since the declaration of the petition “We’ll not be a party to this crime” launched by the Academics for Peace initiative in mid-January.

On 6 June over 50 thousand trade union members and workers from all over Ukraine gathered in Kyiv for the All-Ukrainian Protest March. Under the slogan «EUROPEAN PRICES - EUROPEAN WAGES!», they rallied near the Parliament and Government houses, protesting against the shock increases in gas price and communal tariffs.

The All-Ukrainian Protest March, a joint protest of trade unions representing 8 million workers in Ukraine, will be held at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in Kiev, on 6 July 2016, at 10:00 am.