The German union continues its awareness-raising campaign launched on May 1 against violations of workers’ rights. Including those in Belarus. This takes place against the backdrop of the mounting pressure put on workers all over the world.
According to the ITUC 2024 Global Rights Index, many governments and companies tread, with growing frequency, upon the fundamental rights of workers and their unions which are the essence of democracy.
In Belarus, dozens of members of the independent trade union movement remain in prisons facing extremely hard conditions. In Iran, following the suppression of the female and youth movements, the regime is trying to suppress the struggle of trade unions, resorting even to capital punishment. In Latin America, assassinations of union activists remain commonplace. Recently, on June 15, Anastacio Tzib Caal, General Secretary of the Garment Industry Workers’ Union, was murdered in Guatemala.
Solidarity with persecuted union leaders in the world remains a priority. This is one of the fundamental values of the trade union movement and the German union intends to step up the support they provide to repressed colleagues.
In order to plan further actions and strengthen solidarity with persecuted union activists, the German union invites all interested parties to attend an online meeting scheduled for August 20, 2024, from 18:00 to 19:30.
The meeting participants will discuss the situation of workers’ rights in the world, future activities like newsletters, mailing lists, and campaigns, and look into ways to enhance solidarity with union activists facing persecution.
It should be noted that IG Metall carried out an email-campaign “Freedom to Chhim Sithar/Cambodia and Palina Sharenda-Panasiuk/Belarus” on May 1. Taking part in the event were 60 IG Metall branches and colleagues from administration areas offices including Wolfsburg, Frankfurt, Mulheim-Essen-Oberhausen, and Herborn-Betzdorf. The IGM Education Centre also participated. The International Trade Union Working Group Cologne covered the campaign on its information stand. Three DGB regions and a number of Amnesty International local groups, for instance, in Duisburg and Passau, also took part in the campaign.
The global trade union movement currently runs a campaign “For Democracy” because without democracy in the workplace there can be no democratic societies. The rights to strike, to bargain collectively, and to organize freely remain the main tools in the fight for workers’ rights.
IG Metall (Industriegewerkschaft Metall) — is a sectoral union of German metalworkers bringing together over 2,2 million workers.
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