On April 9, thugs supplied by a labour contractor at Netherlands-based global confectioner Perfetti Van Melle's factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh launched an organized attack on union members at work. Management stood by as over 20 goons organized by labour and services provider Rahat Corporation entered the factory and sought out, beat and intimidated union members with bats and wooden sticks.

JustTourism is a new web portal maintained by IUF members in the global hospitality sector providing updated information on hotels which respect trade union rights.

The IUF Executive Committee (EC) has condemned the introduction of new legislation in Brunei mandating death by stoning for homosexual sex and called for action to pressure the government to repeal the law.

In the lead-up to national parliamentary elections on April 6, the IUF-affiliated Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) organized protest actions calling for a legal minimum wage to be established in the country. TEAM sent letters to all political parties participating in the elections, calling on them to recognize the need for a legal minimum wage for resort workers.

Unions in Asia have rallied in support of the more than 40 workers and their supporters jailed and '"disappeared" in China following attempts by workers at Jasic Technology in Shenzen  to form a union last year.

The IUF-affiliated Kommunal - Sweden's largest union - seeks agreement with employers on concrete measures to ensure that workplaces are free from sexual harassment and abuse. Schysst stall (Fair Stable) is a joint initiative with the service sector employer association and the Swedish Federation of Green Employers launched in March to inform and educate employers, workers, and students training for a career in the horse sector to understand what constitutes sexual harassment and how to respond to it.

Twenty-four unions representing Cargill workers in 15 countries, from Australia to the US, Indonesia to Russia and across Europe, have together publicly called on the company to stop violating rights in Turkey, where workers were fired at a Cargill facility in Bursa-Orhangazi nearly one year ago solely as a consequence of organizing to form a union - an internationally recognized human right.

IUF members around the world have responded to the jailing of 6 hotel union leaders and members at the Hotel Tharabar Gate in Myanmar with demonstrations of support and union visits to the country's diplomatic representations abroad.

The Sakrand Sugar Mills Union, a member of the IUF affiliated Sindh Sugar Mills Workers Federation (SSMWF), has been demonstrating continuously since February 28 at the Sakrand Sugar Mills gates. The management of Sakrand Sugar Mills, a publicly traded company incorporated since 1989, refuses to recognize the union, meet with it or negotiate on its demands, which include payment of the legal minimum wages.

IUF members around the world are calling on the government of Uganda to cancel a plan to promote Uganda's tourist industry with a "Miss Curvy" beauty contest as well as add "sexy" women to official literature listing Uganda's "attractions".

Hotel housekeepers in Iceland will be on strike on International Women's Day in support of their demand for a a living wage and better working conditions. Some one thousand housekeepers working in hotels and guesthouses in and around the capital Reykjavik, a majority of them immigrant women, will take part in the strike.

International Women’s Day, celebrated by IUF affiliates, is again this year dedicated to combating violence against women in the workplace. It is also focused on the need to obtain, at the next International Labour Conference (ILC) in June 2019, an international convention, supplemented by a recommendation, which will give governments a legally-binding framework to enable them to act against and end this form of violence.