LabourStart: Where trade unionists start their day on the net.

International trade union delegations blocked from entering Palestine

In the last three weeks, two high-level delegations of trade union leaders from around the world were blocked by Israeli authorities from entering the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank).  The general secretaries of two global union federations -- Ambet Yuson from Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) and David Edwards from the Education International (EI) -- were there, leading the delegations.  BWI and EI's affiliated unions have a total of 45,000,000 members and these include affiliates in both Israel and Palestine.   This week we interviewed Ambet and David together and heard their stories -- why they were going to Palestine, who invited them, what they were going to do there, and how they faced hours of interrogation and false accusations before being sent back into Jordan.  The interview ended on a determined note from both leaders to continue to fight for the rights of all workers and to show our solidarity wherever and whenever it's needed.Learn more about EI's experience at the Israeli/Jordanian border here.  And read about BWI's experience a week later here.  LabourStart's full coverage of Palestinian labour news can be found here.Support the show

USA: Interview with Chelsie Glaubitz Gabiou, President of the Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation AFL-CIO

Tomorrow (23 January) will see trade unionists and other citizens of Minneapolis shutting the city down in protest at the actions of Donald Trump's ICE thugs.  People won't go to work, they won't shop, their kids won't go to school.  Chelsie will be in the thick of it and in this short interview we talked about what's happening in Minneapolis, the role of the unions and her thoughts on how people elsewhere in the world might show their solidarity.  It's an inspiring story and deserves a large listenership -- please share this widely!Check out the website of the Minneapolis labor unions here.Support the show

Global: Interview with Pamela Morinière - International Federation of Journalists

In this short interview, we talked with Pamela, who is the IFJ's head of communications, about the IFJ's recent report on the number of journalists killed around the world in 2025 (128 that we know about). We discussed why this number keeps going up, the role of ongoing wars, the problem of impunity, what the IFJ and its affiliated unions are doing and what ordinary people around the world can do. Here are some useful links:IFJ safety fundIFJ UN Convention Q and AIFJ web siteSupport the show

60 seconds on ... Christmas shopping

With the run-up to Christmas, retail workers are preparing to face a tsunami of abuse and even violence.  Unions representing shop workers in dozens of countries where Christmas is celebrated are campaigning to protect workers from over-stressed shoppers.Here's our take on Christmas shopping - and a very merry and kind Christmas from all of us at LabourStart!Support the show

60 seconds on ... Lee Cheuk-yan, jailed leader of Hong Kong's trade union movement

"60 seconds on ..." is a new podcast series hosted by LabourStart and aims to provide the international trade union movement with bite-size nuggets of information about important campaigns and news.  In today's episode, we focus on Lee Cheuk-yan, the jailed leader of the Hong Kong Trade Union Confederation, whose trial starts next month.  To learn more about the International Trade Union Confederation's campaign in solidarity with Lee, click here.Support the show