A group of United Nations Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts have called on the ILO to recognize the right to safe and healthy workplaces as one of its 'Fundamental principles and rights at work', a proposal contained in the draft ILO Centenary outcome document currently under discussion at the International Labour Conference.

IUF affiliates organizing thousands of airline catering workers in over 20 cities are balloting for strike action over the next two weeks in support of their demands for a living wage and affordable health insurance.

One million citizens filled the streets of Hong Kong on June 9 to protest proposed legislation which would allow for political critics and opponents to be extradited and tried on the mainland. IUF affiliates, members of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (the only independent trade union in China), have actively supported the movement to stop extradition and joined the protest.

On June 14, 2019 women across Switzerland will be on strike, at work and at home. The strike, overtly feminist and widely supported by trade unions (including our Swiss affiliate Unia), civil society groups and various political parties, is the successor to the historic strike of June 14, 1991.

Some 180,000 citizens of Hong Kong took part in the annual June 4 vigil to commemorate the brutal 1989 repression of China's democracy movement. 'We will not forget', declared the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, that 'During the 1989 democratic movement, workers from various cities formed their own workers' autonomous federations to break free from the shackles of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.'

Until recently, Kraft Heinz set the pace for finance, management and deal-making in food processing and the broader consumer goods sector. The 30% + operating margins it claimed were the benchmark against which corporate performance was measured.  Other companies followed suit.

IUF affiliates in Indonesia have launched daily mass protests outside the Lampung, Indonesia seafood factory of Bumi Menara Internusa (BMI), a major supplier to the global seafood industry, following the May 17 arrest of union secretary Reni Desmiria. Eight years after she began work at the factory as a contract worker, the company has determined that she submitted a fake high school certificate to get hired, reported her to the police and is pressing for the maximum criminal penalty - 6 years' imprisonment.  On June 2, BMI management  visited the union secretary in prison to inform her that she can be immediately released on condition that she resigns her position at the company, confirming that her arrest, imprisonment and prosecution are at the request of BMI. She has refused.

The share price of US-based Beyond Meat, a maker of plant-based proteins that mimic meat, has tripled in the three weeks since it was introduced on the stock market. Rival Impossible Foods' Impossible Whopper can now be purchased at Burger King, and the company is raising large amounts of cash in preparation for its own expected IPO. What's behind the investor rush to so-called 'clean meat'?

The role and responsibility of unions in agriculture, meat and dairy faced with global warming was the issue confronting participants from 18 countries in an IUF climate change workshop hosted by the North American UFCW in Omaha, Nebraska May 6-7. These industries are among the key drivers of climate change, and workers face major challenges to the foundations of production and to the future of employment.

On May 10 in London, the IUF, IndustriALL and Unilever signed an agreement to ensure that the rights of all workers in Unilever manufacturing operations are adequately protected from the potential adverse human rights impacts stemming from the use of non-permanent employment contracts.

A new two-year collective agreement between the IUF-affiliated KUDHEIHA and the
Kenya Hotelkeepers and Caterers Association (KHCA) brings important gains for workers in some 180 catering, hotel and restaurant establishments and safari clubs, lodges and camps.

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the UK Labour Party, took time out from a busy schedule to express his support for the IUF's Coca-Cola Zero Rights campaign.

In March, IUF members around the world showed support for 6 imprisoned leaders and members of our affiliate HLOB in Myanmar. The 6 are now free after serving their sentences, but IUF affiliates worldwide are taking action in support of HLOB's fight for the reinstatement of 12 union members and officers terminated last August and 23 members who were terminated in December for refusing to cross the union picket in solidarity with the 12.