Physical violence and threats against workers has risen by 10 percent

The number of countries experiencing physical violence and threats against workers has risen by ten per cent in just a year.

Attacks on union members have been documented in 59 countries, fuelling growing anxiety about jobs and wages. Corporate interests are put ahead of the interests of working people in the global economy, with 60 per cent of countries excluding whole categories of workers from labor laws.

Unionists have been murdered in eleven countries including Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mauritania, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines and Venezuela.

Working people are being denied the basic rights through which they can organise and collectively bargain for a fair share. This, along with growing constraints on freedom of speech, is driving populism and threatening democracy itself.

The Middle East and North Africa are the worst regions for treatment of workers, with the kafala system in the Gulf still enslaving millions of people. The absolute denial of basic workers' rights remains in place in Saudi Arabia. In countries such as Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, conflict and breakdown of the rule of law means workers have no guarantee of labor rights. In conflict-torn Yemen, 6,50,000 public sector workers have not been paid for more than eight months. The continued occupation of Palestine also means that workers there are denied their rights and the chance to find decent jobs.