Worldwide Survey: Repression of union rights and economic freedoms across the globe - ITUC OnLine

ITUC - Colombia and the Americas maintain the lead in a grim record of murder and repression of workers involved in trade union activities in the latest world Annual Survey of violation of trade union rights released by the ITUC at the 100th ILO Conference. The Annual Survey, conducted across 143 countries, paints a picture of people fighting for greater economic rights and freedom to organise, with many governments and businesses responding with repression, sackings, violence, death threats and murder.

Covering the year 2010, the Annual Survey reveals:
- 90 murders of trade union activists (49 in Colombia alone)
- another 75 recorded death threats and at least 2,500 arrests
- at least 5,000 sackings of unionists because of union activities.

The global trends highlighted in the survey include governments not enforcing labour laws, lack of support for the funding of inspection or protection, the lack of rights and abuse of migrant labour across the world, but particularly in the Gulf States, and the exploitation of the mainly female workforces in the world's export processing zones.

To read the survey in full: http://survey.ituc-csi.org
Media releases concerning Asia: http://www.ituc-csi.org/press-release-anti-union.html

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