TUC Guest bloggers

The TUC is launching a new international development strategy today (9 December) and human rights will play a key role in the strategy – especially freedom of association. Global solidarity, global justice sets out the TUC's goals for...

The bus workers' union in Tehran is one of the few independent unions in Iran, and it faces continual harassment by the authorities. Union leaders Mansour Osanloo (an Amnesty prisoner of conscience), Ebrahim Madadi and Reza Shahabi...

The TUC has complained to the Kenyan High Commissioner about worrying developments in the Kenyan tea industry. First, multinational companies introduced tea leaf picking machines that have destroyed a staggering 80,000 jobs. Second...

There are 33 million people with HIV/AIDS around the world, nine tenths of whom are of working age, and many more with caring responsibilities for family members with HIV/AIDS. So AIDS is a workplace issue and a union issue. This year...

UPDATE The Cuba Solidarity Campaign reports that Gerardo Hernandez has been returned to the general prison population, as we were demanding. ORIGINAL ARTICLE The TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has written to US Secretary of State...

FURTHER UPDATE – Monday night Charles was NOT deported today and has been reprieved for the moment, but things could get worse at any time. The NUJ have reported on the latest developments. UPDATE: Channel 4 jumped the gun – Charles...

It's good news for once, but it's not all good news. Saeed Torabian , the Publicity Director of the Vahed Bus Workers' Union in Tehran, has been freed after 42 days in jail on trumped up charges of acting against national security and...

The news from Iraq this week has not been good. After weeks of popular protest against power cuts which led in some cases to deaths and injuries at the hands of the police, Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani was given the Electricity...

Today the TUC, Amnesty International and the International Federation of Journalists took part in a global day of action in favour of press freedom in the Gambia, and to call for the Gambian authorities to release journalist Ebrima...

For years, we’ve been pressing the Government to be more helpful to people seeking asylum because their sexual orientation or gender identity have put their lives or liberty in danger. A couple of weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled...

As well as the latest Urgent Action for Iranian bus workers union leaders Saeed Torabian and Reza Shahabi, global teacher union Education International reports on a death penalty, arrests and prison beatings. Iranian trade unions are...

The Geneva-based UN body the International Labour Organisation has decided to send a High Level Tripartite Mission to Colombia to investigate why the death rate amongst trade unionists hasn't fallen. This week the TUC has protested...

Colombia goes to the polls in the final round of its Presidential elections on 20 June, and the retirement of President Uribe means that there will inevitably be a new President elected. But one thing doesn't change, despite the claims...

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist, but the Colombian Government denies this. The European Union has been negotiating a trade deal with Colombia for several months, in a move which will be seen...

In the bad old days of apartheid South Africa, protestors would often "commit suicide" or suffer "accidental death" in police custody. Steve Biko was probably the most famous victim. Now it seems those days are back, just across the...

Farzad Kamangar was, like me, a trade unionist. He was also a teacher and a political activist. And on Sunday, the Iranian Government executed him for those so-called 'crimes' (although they called it 'enmity against God'). He was a 35...

Imagine that no one in your workplace has been paid overtime since 2007, and that all new jobs coming up are being filled by your boss’s family. You present a collective complaint to management. You show up at work the next day to...

Teacher trade unionists are being murdered in Colombia – the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist – every fortnight this year. Despite Colombian Government claims that the situation is improving, the latest murder...

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has written to the Turkish Ambassador calling for an urgent appeal hearing for Seher Tümer, a member of the executive board of KESK's Health and Social Service Workers Union (SES) in Ankara. Seher...

The Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has just finished its Spring meeting with a call to further action on forced labour in Burma, and for the release of those jailed for drawing attention to forced labour...