The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deadly consequences of decades of reducing, privatizing and outsourcing public health services. Health workers putting their lives on the line every day to protect us all face overwhelming shortages of personnel, protective equipment, essential supplies and medical facilities. On the occasion of International Nurses Day, May 12, our sister international federation PSI is calling for unions internationally to endorse the call for universal health care with a petition on their site.

On March 25 the IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO in Colombia negotiated an agreement covering 22,000 banana workers on comprehensive measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection. The union has produced a series of short videos demonstrating the safety procedures, which are being implemented and monitored by union representatives together with the employers and public authorities.

A US executive order issued on April 28 declares meat and poultry processing plants 'critical infrastructure' and enjoins state and local authorities from taking any action to close them due to health and safety concerns. IUF affiliates responded to the government's action by insisting on enforceable measures to ensure worker safety.

Since the first appearance of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso, the national IUF Women's Committee and the IUF national Coordination Committee have stepped in where employers and public authorities have been unwilling or unable to provide adequate protection for workers. They have been supplying soap, masks and disinfectant and informing members how to protect themselves, their families and their communities, on and off the job.

Despite UK government guidelines released on 26th March stating that casual workers can be furloughed and paid 80% of average annual earnings, two weeks later Marriott announced that they had "yet to determine their position" on whether casual workers could be furloughed citing 'significant cash flow issues' as their justification. UK Marriott workers wrote a letter to express concern and won.

The IUF has warned G20 tourism ministers that it may take many years to rebuild the tourism sector to pre-COVID-19 levels of activity. The IUF  called for the immediate adoption of protocols to protect hotel workers, including the suspension of optional housekeeping programmes.

The IUF joins with our sister international union organizations in calling for speedy official recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease by governments and national health and safety bodies. Official recognition of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 as a preventable occupational hazard, and  COVID-19 as a work-related disease, would require employers to take necessary measures to protect workers against the risk of exposure, establish liability for failure and provide compensation to workers and their families sickened and killed by COVID-19.

Lockdowns and restrictions on public gatherings due to the COVID-19 emergency will keep workers off the streets but won't stop workers from celebrating our day of international solidarity.

The IUF-affiliated agrifood union FLAI-CGIL, together with numerous civil society organizations, has called on the government to take immediate measures to safeguard the health and safety of the thousands of irregular migrant workers and asylum-seekers living in the country.

Against a background of mass COVID-19 infections of meat processing workers and resulting plant shutdowns, the IUF-affiliated UFCW has reached agreement with JBS, the world's biggest meatpacking company, on safety protocols and a pay increase.

Uganda's Horticultural, Industrial, Service Providers and Allied Workers' Union (UHISPAWU) is fighting to protect thousands of workers on flower farms from falling into poverty and hunger as a consequence of the overnight collapse of the export market. Sales of cut flowers, the bulk of which are exported to Europe for auction, have declined by up to 90 percent and there are no government protection programs for workers in agriculture who lose their jobs.

Some 300 international, regional and national organizations including the IUF and international trade union organizations, have called on WTO members to stop all negotiations on new trade deals during the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on saving lives.

The IUF, our sister federation PSI, peasant organizations and civil society groups campaigning for the right to food have called on the hastily-convened April 21 extraordinary meeting of G20 agriculture ministers to put rights on the agenda as they discuss potential disruption of food supplies in the COVID-19 crisis.