The recent attempted shooting of Libyan trade union leader Nermin Al-Sharif highlights the need for affiliates to participate fully in the United Nations day for the elimination of violence against women (VAW) on 25 November, says the ITF.

Global union bodies the ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) and ITF (International Transport Workers) have swung into action to support a Korean trade union facing state victimisation. Both bodies are mobilising their global networks of affiliated unions to protest to the Korean government following a raid by 200 police officers against the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU), and the brutal arrests of seven union members.

ITF general secretary Steve Cotton met with union leaders and activists across the transport sectors in Tunisia and Morocco to demonstrate support for the development of the affiliates, which has come as a result of the region having the fastest union membership increases.

The president of the ITF-affiliated BTS union in Turkey – who was injured in the suicide bombings in Ankara on 10 October – has condemned the Turkish state in a searing message to the ITF, in which he calls for justice.

The ITF’s roads and railways action week (5-11 October) was a huge success, with hundreds of thousands of workers and their ITF-affiliated unions worldwide in 48 countries campaigning for publicly-owned, safe and ecological transport.

A cross-sectoral global union training seminar was held in Grangemouth, Scotland last week on the industrial hubs programme, a joint initiative between the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation) and Brussels based global union federation IndustriALL.

“We have mind blowing potential here in this room!” That was one of the comments from ITF industrial hubs programme coordinator Mark Lyon during the opening session of training workshops for the programme in Scotland last week.

Around 40 leaders from railway unions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia met with ILO experts and senior ITF representatives in Baku, Azerbaijan from 30 September to 1 October to discuss organising and the promotion of ILO conventions throughout the rail industry.

Hundreds of thousands of workers on the world’s roads and railways will join together next week for seven days of action backing safe, ecological and publicly-accountable transport.

Hundreds of thousands of workers on the world’s roads and railways will join together next week for seven days of action backing safe, ecological and publicly-accountable transport.

Hundreds of thousands of workers on the world’s roads and railways will join together next week for seven days of action backing safe, ecological and publicly-accountable transport – and the ITF is urging its affiliates to make the event even bigger and better than before.

A group of European citizens, transport workers and union members have launched a new European Citizens’ Initiative – Fair Transport Europe – which calls on the European Commission (EC) to propose measures for ensuring fair competition in transport and to guarantee equal treatment of workers.