In connection with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOBIT) on May 17, the IUF will hold a special virtual meeting of its LGBTI and allies committee to gather information about the impacts of COVID-19 and develop responses.

On May 4, police entered the Bagley biscuit factory in Arroyito, Córdoba and attempted to arrest workers and union representatives preparing a meeting on safety measures to deal with the coronavirus hazard. According to the union, Bagley has not been paying the obligatory bonuses and premiums and refuses to pay wages to workers legally entitled to stay home to care for their children during the pandemic.

In India, the attack on fundamental rights at the workplace is accelerating under cover of promoting economic recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 emergency.

Video evidence and media reports detailing gross abuses aboard a Chinese fishing vessel operating with migrant seafarers have again shone a spotlight on the violence and human trafficking proliferating in the global fishing industry.

As casinos across the U.S. closed since March prepare to reopen, the IUF-affiliated UNITE HERE is calling for strict measures to protect workers, guests and public health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deadly consequences of decades of reducing, privatizing and outsourcing public health services. Health workers putting their lives on the line every day to protect us all face overwhelming shortages of personnel, protective equipment, essential supplies and medical facilities. On the occasion of International Nurses Day, May 12, our sister international federation PSI is calling for unions internationally to endorse the call for universal health care with a petition on their site.

On March 25 the IUF-affiliated SINTRAINAGRO in Colombia negotiated an agreement covering 22,000 banana workers on comprehensive measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 infection. The union has produced a series of short videos demonstrating the safety procedures, which are being implemented and monitored by union representatives together with the employers and public authorities.

Since the first appearance of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso, the national IUF Women's Committee and the IUF national Coordination Committee have stepped in where employers and public authorities have been unwilling or unable to provide adequate protection for workers. They have been supplying soap, masks and disinfectant and informing members how to protect themselves, their families and their communities, on and off the job.

Despite UK government guidelines released on 26th March stating that casual workers can be furloughed and paid 80% of average annual earnings, two weeks later Marriott announced that they had "yet to determine their position" on whether casual workers could be furloughed citing 'significant cash flow issues' as their justification. UK Marriott workers wrote a letter to express concern and won.

The IUF has warned G20 tourism ministers that it may take many years to rebuild the tourism sector to pre-COVID-19 levels of activity. The IUF  called for the immediate adoption of protocols to protect hotel workers, including the suspension of optional housekeeping programmes.

The IUF joins with our sister international union organizations in calling for speedy official recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease by governments and national health and safety bodies. Official recognition of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 as a preventable occupational hazard, and  COVID-19 as a work-related disease, would require employers to take necessary measures to protect workers against the risk of exposure, establish liability for failure and provide compensation to workers and their families sickened and killed by COVID-19.

Lockdowns and restrictions on public gatherings due to the COVID-19 emergency will keep workers off the streets but won't stop workers from celebrating our day of international solidarity.

The IUF-affiliated agrifood union FLAI-CGIL, together with numerous civil society organizations, has called on the government to take immediate measures to safeguard the health and safety of the thousands of irregular migrant workers and asylum-seekers living in the country.