LGBTI Workers' Rights

On March 22, 2019 the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted without a vote a resolution on the elimination of discrimination against women and girls in sport including women born with variations of sex characteristics.

Please find here the IUF LGBTI Workers and Allies Committee logo. We encourage IUF affiliates to download this logo and use it in their union activities around LGBTI workers' rights.

During the 40th Meeting of the IUF Latin America Region Executive Committee (CEL) held in Buenos Aires on December 7, the trade union leader, Gisele Adão, who is a member of the CEL and an activist in support of LGBTI workers' rights in Brazil, spoke about the growing dangers that LGBTI people have faced since the government of Jair Bolsonaro took office.

"In just one month following the rise to power of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, we have already realized that the LGBTI community will be one of the most affected in terms of rights," said Gisele Adão, a member of the IUF Latin American Executive Committee. "This is an openly homophobic, racist, chauvinistic, LGBTI-phobic government, and its assumption of power has fueled all kinds of previously veiled prejudices, externalizing and manifesting them in the worst way," said Gisele.

Last year, the IUF Latin American Executive Committee unanimously recognized the work of José Zambrano, a member of the Association for a Better Life of People Infected / Affected by HIV-AIDS in Honduras (Apuvimeh), for his commitment to the struggle for gender equality and the rights of the LGBTI community.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that no one's rights are secure unless everyone's rights are secure, and that human rights are indivisible and inseparable.

A self-defined transvestite woman, Isabelle, 31, is the coordinator of
the Association of Diversity of Limeira (Adlim), Brazil, a movement for
the rights of the LGBTI community in that municipality. She is also a
public employee and trade unionist. In this interview she outlines her
union work and the hard task of generating class consciousness in the
LGBTI collective.

The conference theme of the 10th IUF African Region titled "rights and decent work for all - our common struggle" is engraved on my mind and heart as a confirmation that LGBTI workers are no less human than any other worker or person of different sexual orientation and gender identity to them. No one can persuade any human rights activist that homosexuals and transsexuals are not human beings to be treated with respect and dignity like any other person.

The United Nations has denounced the wave of killings of members of the LGBTI community in Mexico, particularly in the state of Veracruz, where nine transgender women and eight homosexual men were murdered in recent months.

IUF-affiliated CC.OO in Spain has produced training material on LGBTI related topics for its members in Spanish.

This year Unite the Union will be represented by activists at community organised Pride events across the UK.

Equal and fair treatment both at work and in society is a key priority for our union, and we make it clear that we all have a duty to challenge discrimination, harassment and bullying whenever possible. Unite is proud to be a campaigning union and is proud of the work it has done over many years to support equality, particularly within the LGBT+ community.

IUF affiliates UFCW and UNITE HERE marched together at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Pride in the USA on June 17.

IUF affiliate UNITE HERE's (USA) Pride Month graphic design for 2018! Union Pride!