Month: October 2025

The 16th Jubilee Congress of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) celebrating 120 years of trade union history in Georgia, was held on October 24, 2025. 175 delegates and more than 50 invited local and international guests, including those from trade unions from various countries, participated in the congress.

The congress featured a presentation of the new anthem of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation and a film depicting the history of the Georgian trade union movement.

International and local guests and representatives of trade unions of various countries greeted the congress.

The congress heard and adopted the 2021-2025 report of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation, which included the GTUC activities in the areas of workers’ protection, legislative and analytical work, awareness-raising, international activities and labour safety. The congress focused on the importance of the country’s European integration in ensuring decent labour standards for workers. According to the report:

During the reporting period, the GTUC was involved in and prepared more than 10 legislative initiatives, which concerned issues such as: a package of amendments to the Organic Law of Georgia “Labour Code of Georgia”, including in the direction of ensuring women’s rights and gender equality, minimum wage, unemployment benefits and unemployment insurance, labour migration, labour safety, etc;

During this period, the Legal Department provided consultations to more than 45,100 people. 97% of labour disputes were resolved in favour of workers, as a result of which they received various types of compensation, the total amount of which during the reporting period amounted to 4,200,225 GEL;

As a result of collective negotiations, collective agreements and mediation, workers received economic benefits, the total amount of which exceeds 440 million GEL;

514 information meetings (trainings, seminars) were held, in which 11,822 people (workers, civil servants, employers, students, journalists, lawyers, etc.) participated. The topics of the meetings were: labour rights, labour safety, social protection, women’s rights and gender equality, civil servants’ rights, labour standards in the European integration process, etc;

38 trainers were trained, who are actively participating in awareness-raising and organizing areas;

Were prepared: 16 information brochures/bulletins, 35 videos, 230 information cards, 44 open offices, which reached more than 12,000 people;

The GTUC hosted as well as participated in 212 international events, with involvement of 1,329 representatives of the GTUC and its sectoral organizations.

The Congress heard the report of the Control and Revision Commission of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC) on the work done. It also adopted a number of resolutions, including a special resolution on the special status of the trade unions of the autonomous republics of Adjara and Abkhazia in the structure of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation and on the formation of a unified, consolidated and mutual-solidarity trade union movement.

The Congress, for the first time in the history of the Georgian trade union movement, held elections with a new structure, where the GTUC will be led by a General Secretary and a President instead of a Chairman. Irakli Petriashvili was elected General Secretary of the GTUC by secret ballot, and Raisa Liparteliani was elected President. The positions of Deputy General Secretaries were held by Tamar Surmava and Lavrenti Alania.

The Georgian Trade Unions Confederation adopted an action programme for 2026-2029, according to which, over the next 4 years, the GTUC will work on issues such as:

Minimum wage;

Amendments to labour legislation to ensure compliance with ILO and EU standards;

Progressive taxation;

Subsistence allowance;

Reduction of income inequality;

Poverty alleviation;

Formalization of informal employment;

Labour migration;

Protection of women’s labour rights and encouragement of their economic activity;

Climate change and just transition;

Pensions;

Protection of the interests of youth and other vulnerable groups;

Improvement of active labour market policy mechanisms;

Improving rights and social situation of those employed in the care economy and digital labour platforms;

Improving vocational education system;

Ratifying a number of ILO conventions related to women’s rights and labour safety, etc.

At the end of the congress, 30 trade union members employed in various fields were awarded for their outstanding contribution to trade union activities.

It should be noted that the Congress was preceded by a conference on October 23 titled “120-Year History of Georgian Trade Unions, Modern Challenges and Ways to Solve Them”, where participants were provided with information about the history of the Georgian trade union movement and were also given the opportunity to discuss modern challenges in the field of labour.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/avi-lewis-how-to-create-thousands-of-unionized-jobs/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a new poll, commissioned by Unifor as it campaigns to save the Canadian auto industry, that shows a clear majority of Canadians in favour of saving it and the decent work it provides, a neat piece from BC about new-age picketing by civil service workers who would normally be working at home, and lots in both official languages about the escalating strikes by public transit workers in Montreal.

Other stories included the no-surprise announcement by the loonie right UCP government that it will be legislating the ATA back to work next week and more employer-side escalations in the Charlottetown water service strike and the union’s call for a boycott of the contractor at the bottom of that mess.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from Nova Scotia where part-time faculty are off the job, striking against precarious work.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from South Africa where a tripartite meeting chaired by the ILO provided just a glimmer of hope for a global working class response to the climate crisis.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included an impending strike by long-term care workers in Nova Scotia, and a win for the union-supported coalition for pay equity in New Brunswick as the newish provincial government announced that it would be extending pay equity legislation to include workers in the private sector and those who work in care homes.  Both hold the potential for huge wage adjustments for women, but especially in long-term care where the vast majority of workers are women.  The devil will be in the details though, so stay tuned.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was yet another disturbing piece of legislation from the government of Quebec.  The latest, an omnibus bill, has buried within it an attack on public sector health and safety programmes.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Palestine and it’s a shot of Israeli security forces raiding and trashing the offices of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade unions.  The raid was condemned by, among others, Luc Triangle, the General-Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation as “a serious violation of international law and of the fundamental right to freedom of association … an assault on a legitimate, democratic, representative institution of working people.”

This week we published a new podcast, an interview with Solong Senohe, General Secretary of UNITE in

Lesotho.  In this interview, Solong tells us about a whole series of abusive (and illegal) practices at the company, including forced over-time, short-term contracts and union-busting.  It’s an eye-opening introduction to how the clothes most of us wear are made and the price the workers who make them pay.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1972 feminist workers in Vancouver, founded SORWUC – the Service, Office and Retail Workers’ Union of Canada. They sought to represent workers in marginalised, low-paying, largely female-dominated sectors that weren’t high priorities for established unions.

And in 1996, when General Motors tried to break a Canadian Autoworkers strike by removing equipment, union members occupied the corporations Oshawa plants.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages. 

And speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of Serbian air traffic controllers whose union’s leadership was sacked after a legal, not that it matters, strike.  The strike was a clear win for the workers.  Shortly afterwards the security clearances of the union’s officers was lifted and their employment terminated. 

And of course, we have an online action running on behalf of the garment workers union in Lesotho for the reasons outlined in our latest podcast episode.

Responding to the appeals for solidarity from these unions will take no more than a few seconds out of your busy day but it will mean a lot to these workers and, as many of our past campaigns have proven, can make a very real difference in these struggles.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

We hereby invite representatives and employees of trade unions throughout the world to nominate candidates for next year’s award of the Arthur Svensson international prize for trade union rights. The deadline is 1st of January 2026.

Since 2010 the Svensson prize has been awarded to persons and organisations that has worked predominately to promote trade union rights and organizing around the world. Amongst the previous winners we find leaders and activists of the teachers’ union in Bahrain, the Miners union in Mexico, textile workers in Cambodia, health workers in Liberia, independent trade unions in Belarus and Kazakhstan, trade union leader and activist Khaing Zar Aung from Myanmar and many more. This year Aliaksandr Yarashuk, President of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions (BKDP) and member of the ILO Governing body, was awarded the prize.

The prize amount is NOK 500,000 (approx. USD 46.000). One half of the amount goes directly to the prize winner and the other half will be spent on projects related to the prize winner.  

The nomination deadline is January the 1st 2026, but we encourage to start the nomination process as soon as possible. The nominees will be judged on to what extent the person or organization has promoted union rights and/or union organizing in the world. 

More on the award here
Previous winners here

For justified nominations please use this form. Nominations can also be sent with attachments to arthur.svenssonprize@styrke.no . 

Thank you!

In solidarity,

Amalie Hilde Tofte

Secretary of the prize committee

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:  https://rabble.ca/podcast/choose-more-nurses-per-patient-or-worse-health-care/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included a bunch of stories about the BCGEU strike, including interviews with workers on the lines, an interview with CUPW lead negotiator Jim Gallant in which he explains why the union opted for rotating strikes and, in French, a lovely piece from the CSN about a Canada-Mexico trade union collaboration in the Trump era and, oddly, one of the better backgrounders to the Alberta Teachers Association walkout.

Other stories included coverage of the recent CUPE convention’s International Solidarity Forum which featured a presentation from Carine Metz, coordinator with the Democracy and Workers’ Rights Centre in Palestine and Lana Nazzal, president of the Palestinian Governmental Health Service Employees’ Union and a piece from Newfoundland and Labrador’s Independent detailing the extent to which working class concerns were sidelined in the provincial election that saw the Tories return to power earlier this week.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was a simple announcement from the CLC that it has organized a NDP leadership forum for 22 October that will be accessible via Zoom.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Palestine where Israeli forces raided the PGFTU offices. 

Luc Triangle, ITUC General-Secretary, released this statement after the raid, which destroyed much of the facility for no apparent reason: ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle denounced the Israeli operation: “This attack, taking place on Palestinian territory, constitutes a serious violation of international law and of the fundamental right to freedom of association.

“It is an assault on a legitimate, democratic, representative institution of working people. Trade unions are a force for peace, dialogue, and negotiation. They are not military targets.”

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was a piece with a title that says it all: “Annual workplace deaths in Canada remains high”.  According to the University of Regina’s 2025 Report on Work Fatality and Injury Rates in Canada, 1,056 workers died from work-related causes in 2023, and the number is not declining.

Another was from the UNA website, echoing the call from the CFNU urging health ministers to start seriously  addressing violence directed at healthcare workers.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), which opened its 28th National Congress on 9 October with a march through the streets of Sucre.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 1906 at Buckingham, Québec, workers locked out for organizing a union at the MacLaren pulp mill were attacked by company police. Union officers Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault were shot dead.

In 1973 a strike by immigrant workers at the Artistic Woodwork factory in suburban Toronto attracted strong support from political activists and exposed the role of police in protecting strike-breakers.

And last but definitely not least, 1976 saw the first country-wide general strike when one million workers joined in a Day of Protest against the federal government’s wage controls policy.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and be inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, we just launched an online  campaign on behalf of garment workers in Lesotho who are facing down a vicious union-busting effort by a company that supplies clothing to, you guessed it, Walmart.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at:   https://rabble.ca/podcast/cupe-cries-for-an-end-to-fascism-in-federal-government/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included CUPW’s announcement that it was moving from an open-ended national walkout to rotating strikes that would allow deliveries to resume.  This follows the announcement by the federal government that Canada Post had been freed-up to end home mail delivery.

CUPW’s media release explained the change-up this way:

“this will start mail and parcels moving, while continuing our struggle for good collective agreements and a strong public postal service…We will continue our fight for strong public services, good jobs, and a sustainable public post office for all Canadians.”

Other stories included two items involving Unifor.  One regarding the Carney government’s US trade negotiations strategy and the other an update on Amazon’s anti-union tactics at the facility in BC that was recently certified by the BC Labour Relations Board. 

And we had updates from the BCGEU as it again announced an expansion of the strike by the province’s civil service.  For a peek behind the scenes of this strike give our podcast interview with BCGEU president Paul Finch a listen.  It’s already one of our most popular pods and after you listen you’ll know why.

But my favourite item of the week was from CUPE which announced, as its national convention was starting, that its membership total had passed the 800,000 mark.  Positive news about or from the movement is hard to find these days, so I would be pleased to see this news even if I wasn’t a former CUPE member and staff.

Something that popped out at me this morning on our Canada news page was the number and variety of jobs on offer by unions across the country.  The Alliance and SEIU seem to be on a bit of a hiring spree as both unions have multiple postings out, but UFCW 401 in Alberta and a CUPE local at the University of Toronto are also looking to fill staff vacancies.

You can find very recent postings for jobs with Canadian unions on our news page where the bright blue JOB tag identifies them.  But to avoid missing any, and also to check out the jobs outside Canada you might be interested in go direct to our jobs page where you can browse them all.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from Iran where the repression of independent trade unions continues to escalate.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from France where on 2 October unions held a second massive national general strike to protest the neoliberal policies of the national government. More are threatened unless the government changes course.  Which it may do as the French Prime Minister resigned immediately after the strike.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversaries of these events:

In 2011 the first H&M retail outlet in Canada was organized in Mississauga, Ontario, where workers voted to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers.

In 1969 when firefighters and police officers went on strike in Montreal, taxi drivers took action on longstanding grievances against the Murray Hill bus company.

And in 1906, at Buckingham, Québec, workers locked out for organizing a union at the MacLaren pulp mill were attacked by company police. Union officers Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault were shot dead.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and be inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of workers in Turkiye, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.  Their unions are asking us all to take a few seconds out of our busy days and send a solidarity message.

So do that.

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.

The RadioLabour episode that carried this report can be found at: https://rabble.ca/podcast/fighting-for-childrens-education-in-ontario/

This week the top stories sections on our Canadian French- and English-language pages included the shocking news that Quebec’s right-wing CAQ government is looking seriously at upending the Rand formula and making dues optional.  The plan, it seems, is to offer union members a kind of smorgasbord of services that they can then select from and pay for.  Or not. 

Workers could, for example, opt to pay for bargaining and representation but not for charitable donations or court challenges.

This is a direct attack on the trade unions of Quebec.  And as we know far too well, when it comes to labour legislation, bad ideas travel fast.

Until this week the CAQ’s plan was under wraps, for obvious reasons.  Stay tuned for how unions in the rest of Canada react.

Some of our other Canadian top stories are smaller in scale perhaps, but just as concerning.  Like one we caught from Ontario that lays out just how easy it is for employers to engage in wage theft and how difficult it is for temporary foreign workers to collect what’s owed them, even with the backing of the Labour Board.

And, of course, we collected lots of news about the Posties return to the picket lines.  By lots I mean LOTS.

But my favourite item, among our Canadian stories at least, was from BC where ILWU leader Rob Ashton announced that he’d be injecting some working class politics into the federal NDP leadership race.

As LabourStart is a global organization I like to highlight at least one non-Canadian story for you.  This week’s is from the US where unions representing workers in the federal public service, already on the back foot after the Trump regime voided unions rights for almost 4 million workers are struggling to cope with the government shutdown.  And, soon, with whatever Plans the White House has for the future of the civil service down there.

If that’s too much bad news for you, take a gander at our top stories from Greece and France where general strikes against neoliberal government policies came off in a big way this week.

Over on LabourStart’s Working Women pages stories from Canada included a report from the Trades Women Build Nations conference last week and the CLC’s call for increased investment in care services across the country.  Services almost always provided by women workers.

Among the Canadian items appearing on our health and safety page and newswire this week was one from Newfoundland and Labrador where the Tory candidate for premier in the provincial election had a bad day as a sister from the Marystown Shipyard Alliance grabbed a mic and challenged him in front of a crowd and some TV cameras.

Look for it, it might make your day.

LabourStart’s Photo of the Week, which you can catch on our main page until Monday, is from Brazil where unions and their allies have organized a popular referendum to pressure the national government to enact progressive tax reforms and other social justice policies.

The labour movement’s history is what our current struggles are built on and this week we marked the anniversary of a truly historic event.

On the first day of October in 1741, workers at the Royal Shipyard in Québec organized the first recorded strike in Canadian history.  Why this event doesn’t get more attention in what’s left of the labour press in this country escapes me.

There are lots more labour history items like this to be found at the bottom of our Canadian news pages.  Look for them and be inspired.

Speaking of inspiration, we are currently campaigning on behalf of workers facing down hostile governments and employers in Turkiye, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.  In each case the workers, through their unions, are asking us all to take just a few seconds out of our day to send a solidarity message.

So why don’t you?

This is Derek Blackadder from LabourStart reporting for RadioLabour.