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.

The IUF-affiliated Food and Services Union (ACV-CSC) has successfully negotiated a local agreement at Danone Dairy Belgium's Rotselaar plant which strictly defines and restricts the use of non-permanent employment.

For 374 days, workers and their union at AB InBev Sonepat plant have been fighting union-busting and local management's ongoing refusal to reinstate unfairly terminated union leaders, and they continue to fight for their rights. CLICK HERE to send a message to AB InBev.

Paid maternity leave in the Philippines has been extended from 60 to 105 days under a new law which came into effect on February 20. IUF affiliates NUWHRAIN and the SENTRO Food & Beverage Workers Council played a significant role in winning the additional 45 days.

After 160 days of struggling for recognition and overcoming management efforts to undermine the right to freedom of association, the union of workers at Dutch-based global confectioner Perfetti Van Melle was granted legal collective bargaining status on February 17. The union is now preparing to bargain a first ever collective agreement for workers at the Gazipur factory.

Tunisia's national trade union center UGTT has condemned the exploitation of migrant workers from sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia and called for government action to protect their rights.

Hundreds of thousands of trade union members from across Italy came together in Rome on February 9 for a demonstration called by the three largest national union confederations demanding the 'populist' government act to ensure 'A future for work!' The unions are jointly calling for a massive government-led investment program and other measures to combat unemployment and reduce poverty and precariousness.

Independent trade unions in Algeria continue their long fight for rights in the face of ongoing repression. On February 3, police forcefully broke up a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security by independent unions, including the IUF-affiliated SNATEG, demanding the reinstatement of trade union representatives dismissed from their jobs at the state electricity utility SONELGAZ.