Month: June 2026

It’s always great to hear that a LabourStart campaign has helped workers to win.

And that’s why I want to share with you the good news from a group of Italian teachers who went on strike a few months ago.

Those teachers have now won. They have a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). And to celebrate their victory, they issued a statement thanking LabourStart for the help we were able to provide.

It begins by thanking us:

“We would like to thank you and LabourStart for your incredible support during the Italian High School strike. This campaign has been a milestone for the union movement in Turkey. For the very first time, a strike was launched in a private school, mobilizing a highly educated and distinct segment of the working class.”

It continues:

“Most importantly, thanks to LabourStart, our voice reached across the globe in multiple languages. The international solidarity messages you helped generate traveled all the way to our picket-line, giving us the strength to carry on.”

You can read their statement in full here:

“We made history” – statement of the Turkish teachers at Liceo Italiano I.M.I.

And I want to thank you — because you have made our work possible.

Right now we need your support more than ever before. We know that working people and our unions are all facing financial problems. And that’s why some have had to cut back.

We keep our expenses to a minimum. Almost all the work on LabourStart is done by volunteers. We don’t have a physical office. And we’ve managed to do this for more than 28 years, even as other online projects have had to close down due to lack of funds.

If you can make a donation of any amount today, it would help us during this difficult moment.

Please click here to support LabourStart.

Thank you very much!

Eric Lee
LabourStart

We would like to thank you and LabourStart for your incredible support during the Italian High School strike.

This campaign has been a milestone for the union movement in Turkey. For the very first time, a strike was launched in a private school, mobilizing a highly educated and distinct segment of the working class.

We set up our strike tent and raised our flags at the gates of a prestigious school in the heart of the city. We spent over 100 days on the picket line under continuous police surveillance, but we were sustained by the incredible solidarity and love of our students.

At the end of these 100 days, we successfully reached a verbal agreement, though it has not yet been officially signed by the Italian authorities. Throughout this journey, the support from students, parents, and fellow trade unions was immense.

Most importantly, thanks to LabourStart, our voice reached across the globe in multiple languages. The international solidarity messages you helped generate traveled all the way to our picket-line, giving us the strength to carry on.

This has been an invaluable experience for us. We made history by organizing the first strike in the private education sector, and we are now on the verge of signing the first-ever collective bargaining agreement in a foreign school in Turkey.

We hope to share the final, signed good news with you very soon.

Thank you once again for standing with us.

Long live international solidarity! Long live our strike! Viva la solidarietà internazionale! Viva lo sciopero!