Malaysian workers vote for union — Boeing fights back
The National Union of Transport Equipment and Allied Industries Workers (NUTEAIW), affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, won a secret ballot at the plant with 85 percent support on 10 December last year. Instead of recognizing the result, BCM management, together with members of the company’s Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), pressured workers to sign a petition against the union. Workers describe signing under duress, in an atmosphere of fear.
BCM then used those signatures to file a judicial review at the high court on 10 February 2026, seeking to overturn the democratic vote.
NUTEAIW general secretary Gopal Kishnam Nadesan says:
“The post-election petition manufactured by the employer has no legal standing in the Industrial Relations Act and serves only to undermine the democratic process. The law clearly prohibits an employer from interfering with employees exercising their right to join a trade union. This is the utmost disrespect of the democratic process and workers’ freedom of association.”
Malaysia has ratified ILO Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. The Convention protects worker organizations against interference by employers in their establishment or functioning.
IndustriALL regional secretary for South-East Asia Ramon Certeza says:
“BCM’s acts of union busting have clearly violated international and domestic labour law. IndustriALL stands in solidarity with NUTEAIW members and urges the Malaysian government to intervene in the dispute immediately, requesting the company to drop the judicial review and grant recognition voluntarily.”
BCM is wholly owned by the Boeing Company and produces composite and structural products for Boeing commercial aircraft. The company acquired the Aerospace Composites Malaysia manufacturing facility and renamed it in 2023.
Singhitarai explosion exposes systemic OSH failures in India
Preliminary investigations point to excessive pressure caused by fuel accumulation inside the furnace, confirming the incident was preventable.
The plant has no union representation, and unions have reportedly been unable to access the site, raising serious concerns about safety oversight and accountability.
Systemic failure
Official data shows that in 2022, India had 268,747 working factories but only 6,244 safety officers — one for every 40 factories — making effective inspection impossible. Of 4,036 recorded workplace injuries that year, 1,053 were fatal. More than one in four reported incidents ended in death, reflecting both the severity of accidents and likely underreporting.
At a South Asia regional OSH webinar held by IndustriALL on 15 April, trade unions reiterated these concerns, pointing to weak inspection systems, lack of enforcement and the absence of worker participation as key drivers of recurring industrial accidents.
Unions in Pakistan reported repeated fatal accidents in the power and textile sectors driven by weak enforcement and precarious work. In Bangladesh, safety improvements remain uneven beyond the garment sector, leaving workers in other industries exposed.
These examples underline that the accident in Singhitarai reflect broader regional failures in enforcement and accountability.
Accountability, not just compensation
Company responsibility cannot end with compensation announcements. Without accountability, the cycle will continue.
Sanjay Singh, general secretary of the Indian National Electricity Workers Federation and IndustriALL executive committee member, said:
“This was not an unforeseen accident. Operating with outdated and scrapped machinery under excessive load is a clear case of negligence. The real question is how such a plant was allowed to operate in the first place.”
Sanjay Vadhavkar, general secretary of the Steel, Metal & Engineering Workers’ Federation of India and IndustriALL executive committee member, said:
“As per available information, this could have been avoided and workers’ lives saved with proper safety systems. Rising industrial accidents in India reflect eroding safety controls, reduced inspections, and self-certification. The dilution of safety laws in favour of industry is putting workers at risk. Unions will continue to fight for safe workplaces.”
Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary, said:
“Worker safety is a fundamental obligation under ILO Conventions C155 and C187. This tragedy exposes serious failures in enforcement and accountability. It also underlines the critical role of worker representation in identifying risks and preventing accidents. The company must take full responsibility, ensure full transparency regarding the causes of the explosion, and guarantee that workers are able to organise and be represented to prevent such tragedies from happening again.”
ACT report shows progress and gaps in brands’ purchasing practices
The ACT Accountability and monitoring report 2025, released on 15 April, draws on responses from 1,049 brand employees across 18 signatory brands and 1,055 suppliers in more than 70 production countries. The scale and methodology of the report are significant: rather than relying on brand self-reporting alone, the findings are cross-referenced with supplier feedback, providing a more honest picture of where change is and isn’t happening.
Where progress is being made
The report identifies the strongest advances in sourcing strategy and responsible exit practices. There are also signs of improvement in labour costing and planning systems, though challenges remain around forecast accuracy and the consistent protection of labour costs from price pressure.
Suppliers identified five purchasing practices as most critical to enabling higher wages: price negotiation, forecasting and capacity planning, sourcing strategy, buyer-supplier relations and terms of payment.
Where the gaps remain
The report also highlights areas where supplier experience does not match corporate reporting, particularly in labour costing and some payment-related practices. This is not a minor finding. It goes to the heart of why ACT’s accountability framework exists: to move beyond policy statements and test whether commitments are being lived up to in practice.
Why this matters for IndustriALL
IndustriALL Global Union is a founding member and co-architect of ACT. The framework is built on the conviction that collective bargaining, supported by responsible purchasing practices and genuine respect for freedom of association, is the most effective and sustainable route to improved wages and working conditions. This aligns with ILO conclusions on wage policies, including living wages.
This report demonstrates that the ACT model works precisely because it does not allow brands to be the sole judges of their own progress. The 360-degree methodology, triangulating data from brands, brand employees and suppliers, is what gives the findings credibility. When it surfaces uncomfortable gaps, that is the framework functioning as intended.
ACT executive director Mira Neumaier described the process as
“a collective, learning-based process”
rather than a static compliance exercise, with the primary objective of enabling fact-based conversations across global supply chains.
The 18 current ACT signatory brands include Asos, C&A, H&M Group, Inditex, Lidl, Next, Primark, PVH, Tesco and Zalando, among others.
IEA calls on energy workers, unions and industry to shape global jobs report
The results will feed into the World Energy Employment 2026 report, an annual study that tracks the global energy workforce and shapes recommendations read by governments and employers worldwide.
Why your response matters
Last year’s World Energy Employment 2025 report drew on responses from more than 700 energy firms, trade unions and educators across the IEA’s annual Energy Employment Survey. The findings painted a clear picture of a sector under pressure.
The energy sector is growing fast. In 2024, it employed 76 million people worldwide, up more than 5 million since 2019 and created jobs at nearly double the rate of the wider economy.
But that growth is running into a serious obstacle: an increasing shortage of skilled workers. In a separate IEA survey of over 400 energy companies in 2025, around 60 per cent reported hiring difficulties due to skills and labour shortages. Applied technical roles like electricians, grid line workers, solar PV installersand welders and pipefitters are the hardest to fill, accounting for more than half of the total energy workforce yet facing the highest shortages.
The IEA’s Labour Employment Survey asked workers and their representatives directly what makes a job worth taking. The answers were clear: fair pay (90 per cent of respondents), employment security (73 per cent) and a safe working environment (71 per cent). Yet only 35 per cent of workers surveyed classified clean energy jobs as quality jobs with both good working conditions and good pay, a gap that unions and employers must urgently address.
The workforce is also ageing. In advanced economies, there are 2.4 workers within ten years of retirement for every worker under the age of 25. In nuclear and grid roles specifically, that ratio rises to 1.7 and 1.4 respectively. Between now and 2035, two out of every three new hires will be needed simply to replace retiring workers.
Closing the skills gap will require urgent and coordinated action. The IEA estimates that the number of new graduates entering the energy sector would need to rise by around 40 per cent globally by 2030, at a cost of roughly US$2.6 billion per year, less than 0.1 per cent of global public education spending.
These are the issues the 2026 surveys are designed to address. The more responses the IEA receives, the stronger the evidence base, and the stronger the case for policies that put workers at the centre of the energy transition.
“The energy transition is reshaping millions of jobs around the world. For that transition to be just, workers and unions must be at the table, not only when decisions are made, but when the evidence is gathered. I encourage everyone in the energy sector to take a few minutes to respond to this survey and make their voice count,”
said Diana Junquera Curiel, director of industrial policy, IndustriALL Global Union
Which survey is for me?
The IEA has launched four surveys, each targeting a different audience. Find yours below and share the links widely with your networks.
For public institutions involved in energy, labour, skills or education policy, including ministries, national skills agencies and other governmental bodies.
For energy companies, supply chain firms and those with responsibility for hiring and workforce planning.
Share your best practice
In addition to the surveys, the IEA is collecting examples of policies, initiatives and case studies through its new Employment and Skills Policy and Case Study Tracker. If your organization has developed a programme worth sharing, submit it here, it could be featured in the World Energy Employment 2026 report.
All surveys close on 15 May 2026. Please share these links widely with your union networks, colleagues and contacts in the sector. Every response strengthens the evidence for a just, people-centred energy transition.
The energy sector employed 76 million people worldwide in 2024, yet skilled labour shortages are widening. Source: Shutterstock / STK_08
Bangladesh’s roadmap is stalling
These findings are drawn from the ILO’s roadmap report on the 18-point demands, published in March 2026, covering the period from March 2025 to March 2026, and covering all sectors. The report tracks progress against commitments made by the Bangladeshi government and social partners and exposes where implementation has fallen short. Notably, the minimum wage agreement, a key demand under the 18-point framework, is due for conclusion this year. Negotiations have yet to begin.
In 2025 Bangladesh took notable steps ratifying three ILO Conventions – C155 on Occupational Safety and Health, C187 on the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health and C190 on Violence and Harassment – becoming the first in South Asia to do so. For workers who have spent years fighting for recognition, these are hard-won gains.
But ratification is not protection. And for the millions of workers in Bangladesh’s garment factories, export processing zones and beyond, the gap between what the law says and what actually happens on the factory floor remains vast.
The legal limit for union registration is 55 days. Many applications take far longer — in some cases, up to two years. A concern IndustriALL affiliates have raised repeatedly across multiple ILO Governing Body reporting cycles, the “Nothijat” filing system leaves applications suspended in bureaucratic limbo, with no resolution in sight. Workers who try to organize don’t just face delays. They face dismissal, harassment and intimidation.
Of 42 reported cases of anti-union discrimination and unfair labour practices, authorities acted on only eleven. Employers, meanwhile, are allegedly actively promoting yellow unions, company-friendly bodies designed to crowd out genuine worker representation.
The ready-made garment sector is Bangladesh’s largest export industry, employing millions of workers. However, the report underscores the need to strengthen collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) at the workplace level, which remain very limited in number. The government’s 18-point tripartite agreement, signed in September 2024 and heralded as a major achievement, was already raising concern among affiliates about uneven implementation across industrial areas. These figures suggest those concerns were well founded.
Ratification without protection
Workplace safety figures tell a similar story. IndustriALL previously raised serious doubts about the credibility of the government’s inspection statistics, questioning whether 441 inspectors could meaningfully conduct the 85 daily inspections the government claimed. The numbers now bear that out: 1,190 workers were killed in workplace accidents in 2025, up from 905 the year before. Despite reforms, safety protections remain dangerously insufficient.
Workers in export processing zones continue to be denied the right to form independent trade unions altogether, restricted instead to Workers’ Welfare Associations that fall short of international standards. Reform of the EPZ framework has been slow and insufficient.
The Labour (Amendment) Act, 2026 marks a step forward, particularly for workers in high-risk sectors, including RMG and shipbreaking. The introduction of employment injury schemes to strengthen compensation and social protection and establishes the legal right to refuse unsafe or hazardous work, a significant gain for workers in high-risk sectors including ready-made garment and shipbreaking. These concrete measures, alongside improvements in labour inspection and social dialogue, signal progress towards safer and more accountable workplaces. Continued efforts to ensure effective implementation and strengthen social dialogue will further support these positive developments in practice. IndustriALL and its affiliates are committed to working alongside the government to support these efforts.
Atle Høie, general secretary of IndustriALL, says:
“The new Bangladeshi government has just passed a strong labour code and we have hopes that this indicates a change in values towards workers. But legislative reform alone is not enough. What workers need now is full and effective implementation in practice, backed by stronger enforcement, greater accountability, and real protection against anti-union retaliation. Without these concrete actions, the objectives of the roadmap will remain unfulfilled.”
Global unions call for a permanent and sustainable ceasefire in the Middle East
The undersigned Global Unions (CGU) call for a permanent and sustainable ceasefire across the Middle East and an immediate end to the relentless cycle of war and militarism that continues to exact a devastating toll on civilians, workers, and entire communities.
We lament that the recent negotiations in Islamabad during the two‑week ceasefire between the United States of America, Israel and Iran ended without a viable peace deal. This ceasefire must be made permanent, must lead to full de‑escalation, and must explicitly include Lebanon, where ongoing Israeli military assaults against Iran supported Hezbollah, have already produced a catastrophic humanitarian crisis also affecting the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Lebanese citizens. Lebanon continues to bear a heavy human and social cost of the conflict. Civilians face ongoing attacks, displacement, and the destruction of critical infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Lebanon must not be treated as a secondary theatre of war; any serious path to peace must include an end to the attacks devastating the country and its citizens.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered severe humanitarian and economic shocks across the region, disrupting oil, gas and fertiliser exports and supply chains, exacerbating already strained food security, as the conflict spills into neighbouring countries and pushes already fragile economies into further fiscal crisis with severe consequences for people’s livelihoods and access to basic needs. This is putting thousands of jobs at risk, leaving workers exposed to sudden income loss and being left without protections.
Unfortunately, one of the defining features of this war is the targeting of energy, oil, gas and petrochemical facilities in a region that relies heavily on these industries for its economy. Workers in these sectors are being killed or injured while carrying out their duties at their workplaces while the commodities themselves are used as leverage on both sides of the conflict.
While global attention focuses on rising oil prices, civilian seafarers have been killed and injured, and vessels remain under threat of being targeted. More than 20,000 seafarers remain trapped in the Strait of Hormuz, living in constant fear and uncertainty – innocent civilian workers who are effectively on the front line, their lives on the line every day.
With over 30 million migrant workers across the region, many are among the hardest hit, sustaining key sectors while facing heightened risks to their safety, job loss, unpaid wages, and barriers to evacuation. Their safety, rights, and access to wages must be guaranteed without delay.
Workers, civilians, and public institutions must never be targets of military operations. The killing and injuring of workers across all sectors, including those in education, healthcare, journalism and media, transport and other essential services, as well as the destruction of protected spaces such as schools and hospitals, are profound violations of international law and an assault on human dignity. Such acts are intolerable and must be unequivocally condemned.
The global trade union movement rejects the logic of war and militarisation. Military force does not bring security – it entrenches violence, fuels instability, deepens injustice, and undermines the foundations of peace, democracy, human rights and multilateral cooperation. Diplomacy, not bombs; dialogue, not destruction, remain the only legitimate path to lasting peace.
As unions representing over 200 million workers across sectors and continents, we call on the international community to:
Reject war, respect international law and condemn the use of military force by all parties;
Transform the current ceasefire into a permanent and sustainable end to the hostilities, including full de‑escalation;
Protect civilians and safeguard essential services and infrastructure, ensuring access to healthcare, education, transport, workplaces, water, and food, in full compliance with international law;
Ensure the protection of migrant workers, seafarers, refugees, and all workers in precarious situations, including safe evacuation where necessary, as well as access to wages, healthcare, shelter, and communication;
Uphold human and labour rights, guarantee accountability for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and protect freedom of association, trade union activity, and democratic civic space during conflict and crisis.
We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to a world in which conflicts are resolved through diplomacy rather than violence, where multilateralism is strengthened, and where all people have the right to live and work in safety, dignity, democracy, and peace. War is a political choice. But peace is the only answer.
Korea: over 20,000 subcontract workers demand bargaining rights from Hyundai and POSCO
This hard-won victory came after more than two decades of trade union struggles.
Immediately after the amendments came into force on 10 March, over 20,000 subcontract workers from 58 of its branches of the Korean Metal Workers’ Union (KMWU) submitted formal bargaining demands to 18 principal employers.
The principal employers include Hyundai Motor, HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Steel. To date, only two companies have acknowledged receipt. Even Hyundai Steel, where the courts have already recognized its status as a principal employer, refused to accept the union’s submission, forcing the union to serve documents by fax and post.
By introducing the exclusive bargaining representative mechanism, the Korean Ministry of Employment and Labour is treating all subcontract workers as a single bargaining unit. Under Korean law, this mechanism requires all unions at a workplace to select a single representative before bargaining can begin, a process that risks sidelining smaller subcontractor unions in favour of larger in-house unions. This opens the door for employers to deny specific subcontractor unions the right to bargain collectively with principal employers, undermining the purpose of the amendment to protect subcontract workers’ rights.
KMWU identified campaigning for the repeal of the exclusive bargaining representative mechanism as one of four priorities at its 61st Regular Delegates Assembly on 3 March. The other three priorities are organizing joint bargaining actions across subcontracting chains, securing precedent-setting bargaining victories, and demanding a social dialogue framework to promote multi-employer bargaining.
“Ensuring dignity at work for on-site subcontract, outsourced and subsidiary workers, who have long faced discrimination, is a critical step toward addressing labour polarisation. In 2026, the KMWU will dedicate its full efforts to securing and expanding collective bargaining with principal employers. We urge the government to respect subcontract workers’ right to collective bargaining and abolish the exclusive bargaining representative mechanism.”
Meanwhile, 3,500 subcontract workers submitted a collective agreement proposal to POSCO through the Federation of Korean Metalworkers’ Trade Unions (FKMTU) on 10 March. POSCO has acknowledged receipt of the proposal from both FKMTU and KMWU.
“The law amendment serves as an opportunity to open the door to collective bargaining for workers in the Republic of Korea who have not had meaningful bargaining rights. We have only just arrived at the starting line, focusing on safety and health issues. We expect the scope of bargaining to gradually expand.”
Unions fight to save 2,400 jobs in South Africa’s ferrochrome sector
In South Africa’s ferrochrome sector, where once-bustling smelters now lie dormant, unions are fighting to save jobs. The sector, long a pillar of the country’s mineral beneficiation programmes, has fallen idle due to high electricity costs and under-utilization. At present, only 11 of the country’s 66 ferrochrome furnaces are operational.
Unions secure tariff deal
After intensive lobbying, a modest breakthrough appeared on 27 February 2025 when Glencore-Merafe Chrome and Samancor Chrome secured an agreement with Eskom, the state-owned power utility, to pay R0.62 (US$0.033) per kilowatt-hour instead of the R0.877 (US$0.047) approved in January. The tariff had previously stood at R1.36 (US$0.073) per kilowatt-hour, according to NUM. Eskom granted the reduction on condition that smelters that had been shut down be brought back into production, subject to a five-year contract, annual tariff reviews, revenue-recovery mechanisms and other safeguards designed to protect the utility’s own precarious finances.
Companies press ahead with retrenchments despite tariff deal
The apparent compromise has quickly soured. The companies are dissatisfied with Eskom’s conditions, arguing against the long-term commitments and adjustment clauses. Rather than reopening idle furnaces, management has signalled its intention to proceed with retrenchments. The unions accuse the employers of negotiating in bad faith: after securing the lower tariff, Glencore-Merafe Chrome and Samancor Chrome are now backing away from commitments to job preservation and capacity restoration.
NUM expressed shock and disappointment, particularly over Samancor’s decision. “This move comes as a devastating blow to the workforce,” the union said, “particularly after NUM fought tirelessly to negotiate for lower electricity tariffs to ensure the sustainability of the company’s operations.”
NUMSA general secretary Irvin Jim is demanding the immediate withdrawal of all Section 189 notices, the reopening of mothballed smelters and a return to genuine negotiations with Eskom over the disputed conditions.
Jobs at stake in a country with 43 per cent unemployment
The stakes extend well beyond the two companies. South Africa’s extended unemployment rate stands at over 43 per cent. The destruction of thousands of formal-sector jobs carries significant knock-on effects for household incomes, local economies and social stability.
Paule-France Ndessomin, IndustriALL regional secretary for Sub-Saharan Africa, said:
“South Africa cannot afford to lose these jobs. With unemployment already at over 43 per cent, every formal-sector job that disappears takes a family’s income with it. These companies have a responsibility to their workers and to the communities that depend on them. Walking away from that responsibility is not a business decision, it is a social one, and IndustriALL is in full support of its affiliates NUM and NUMSA in their fight to save jobs.”
Global unions warn UN migration draft puts migrant workers at risk
The statement warns that the current UN draft text is a dangerous step backwards, moving away from a rights-based approach and diluting references to core International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions on freedom of association and collective bargaining.
A regression in rights for migrant workers
The joint statement raises the alarm over the 2026 Zero Draft of the Progress Declaration, which the GUFs say shifts migration governance toward a technocratic “labour market” model, one that risks treating migrant workers as economic inputs rather than rights-holders.
While welcoming stronger language on recruitment fees and debt bondage, GUFs are calling for six urgent changes:
guaranteeing the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining for all migrant workers
restoring international labour standards as the foundation of migration policy
strengthening labour inspection and enforcement
ensuring social protection portability
prioritizing regularization over temporary and employer-tied schemes
guaranteeing binding fair recruitment regulations
The statement also underlines that migrant workers must have access to justice — including the ability to pursue grievances for wage theft, workplace violations and harassment even after returning to their country of origin. According to the statement, wage theft is the number one indicator of forced labour and migrant workers are three times more likely to be in forced labour than other workers.
The reality on the ground
The demands reflect a pattern that IndustriALL knows well. In Malaysia, IndustriALL recently filed a formal complaint with the ILO after documenting systematic union busting across 12 companies in the electronics, semiconductor, aerospace, automotive and paper sectors. Migrant workers were among the most targeted, threatened with deportation and non-renewal of work permits to prevent them from voting for a union. At Lumileds, migrant workers were deported after the union won its ballot.
Women migrant workers face compounding barriers. At the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), IndustriALL and fellow GUFs highlighted that across global supply chains, women are overrepresented in the most precarious jobs, often with no union coverage and no access to grievance mechanisms.
IndustriALL’s commitment
The statement reflects IndustriALL’s own Action Plan (2025–2029), which explicitly commits to defending migrants and refugees as part of its broader fight for equality and workers’ rights. The Action Plan recognizes that migrant workers are particularly stigmatized and exposed to severe rights violations and injustice, and commits IndustriALL to enhancing policies of inclusion with the active involvement of migrants and refugees in union activities.
“Migrant workers sustain economies and essential sectors across the world, yet they remain structurally excluded from the protections that every worker deserves. The 2026 Progress Declaration must not go backwards. It must guarantee that every worker, regardless of their passport or visa status, has the right to organize, bargain collectively and live and work in dignity,”
We are stronger together”: women unite at USW Women of Steel conference
“Women of Steel is not a programme or a meeting,”
said Randie Pearson, director of Women of Steel, at the opening of the conference.
“It is a movement inside the union.”
Delegates from the United Steelworkers (USW) Women of Steel Conference gather at an outdoor rally in Toronto, Canada, April 2026.
The conference, held in Toronto from 30 March to 2 April 2026, brought together approximately 1,000 women union members from across the United States and Canada under the theme “Education for a New Era” and the slogan “Know Your Power.” It was the first major gathering since Roxanne Brown became the 10th international president of the United Steelworkers (USW), the first woman and the first black woman to lead the union.
Structures build leaders
The conference opened with a land acknowledgement by a traditional grandmother and knowledge keeper, grounding the week in a spirit of reconciliation and responsibility. What followed was four days of plenaries, workshops and conversations built around one central conviction:
women’s leadership does not appear by itself. It is built, deliberately, over time, by structures that refuse to wait for permission.
Women of Steel predates female representation on the USW executive board. Since its founding, it has won pregnancy accommodations, lactation spaces, PPE designed for women’s bodies and contract language that reflects the realities women actually live.
Today, the majority of USW department heads are women. Three women sit on the executive board. The international president is a woman.
Randie Pearson addresses delegates at the opening session of the USW Women of Steel Conference in Toronto, Canada, March 2026.
Randie Pearson put the significance plainly:
“Every single one of you in this room has that same power. Maybe you don’t see it yet. Maybe you’ve been told to sit down and stay quiet or wait your turn. But you don’t have to wait. Your voice matters right here and right now.”
Former USW vice president and former IndustriALL executive committee member Carol Landry put the journey into perspective at the closing reception.
It was the women of District 6 who, in the early 1990s, brought the proposal to then-international president Leo Gerard, the push that would eventually give birth to Women of Steel. Landry became the first woman elected to the USW executive board and also served on IndustriALL’s executive committee. Decades later, she was in that room in Toronto watching a woman as international president.
Carol Landry addresses delegates at the opening of the United Steelworkers (USW) Women of Steel Conference in Toronto, Canada, March 2026. Photo: USW.
Politics is personal
The second day opened with a session on politics, policy and women’s place. Amber Miller, newly elected international vice president at large, made the connection immediate and visceral.
Amber Miller VP at large addresses a rally during the USW Women of Steel Conference in Toronto, Canada, March 2026.
Drawing on her own experience as a woman in industrial workplaces, the unsafe conditions, the shift she worked two weeks after giving birth because her family could not afford for her to stay out any longer, she made the case that politics is never abstract.
“Politics is who gets believed, who gets opportunities, who gets protected, who gets dismissed,” she said. “Those things don’t happen by accident. They happen because people are making decisions and those decisions are shaped by policy, culture and the people who hold power.”
Know your power
Throughout the week, workshops gave participants practical tools to take back to their locals, on health and safety, bargaining, legislative engagement and leadership.
USW international president Roxanne Brown charged every woman in the room to know who she is before the world tries to tell her.
“At some point, the world is going to try to tell you who they think you are,” she said. “So it’s really important that you know who you are. So that when that moment comes, you stand in the power of the knowledge of who you are.”
Roxanne Brown addresses a rally during the USW Women of Steel Conference in Toronto, Canada, March 2026.
On day three, the Women of Steel rally drew delegates onto the streets of Toronto, joined by the mayor of the city, in a show of solidarity that made the week’s themes visible and public.
The global fight is one fight
A panel on women’s leadership and global solidarity brought together IndustriALL assistant general secretary Christina Olivier, Carla Castro from EMIH, the independent monitoring group in Honduras, and Ruth Lopez from IndustriALL affiliate Los Mineros in Mexico.
Panelist Christina Olivier AGS takes part in a solidarity discussion at the opening of the USW Women of Steel Conference in Toronto, Canada, March 2026.
Olivier named the backlash directly: in 2024, one in four countries went backwards on women’s rights. She connected this to the green and digital transitions reshaping industry, noting that women are absorbing the costs of transformation without being in the rooms where those decisions are made.
“As capital globalizes the exploitation of workers, we must globalize our solidarity,” she said.
Carol Castro described the violence, harassment and physical toll facing women in Honduras’s maquila sector, age discrimination beginning at 35, mandatory overtime, obstetric violence and lack of childcare. She closed with her organisation’s motto: “They are afraid of us because we are not afraid. No more dead women in our country.”
Ruth Lopez spoke about the visibility women have won in a historically male-dominated sector, at the bargaining table and on health and safety commissions. She also spoke about the work that remains, to create spaces where women do not just enter, but lead.
A global solidarity workshop later in the week, in which CNM-CUT, IndustriALL’s Brazilian affiliate, made a powerful intervention. She underlined what the panel had made clear: the struggles women face in their industries cross every border, and so must the solidarity.
Delegate from CNM-CUT speaks at workshop on international solidarity
“The 2026 USW Women’s conference was not just a gathering. It was evidence. Evidence that when unions commit to building women’s leadership, not as a side project but as the foundation, the results follow,”
said Christina Olivier.
“And evidence that the hunger for cross-border solidarity among women workers is real, deep and ready to be met.”
