Category Archives: Resources

Global: Heat kills, IUF warns on International Workers’ Memorial Day

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The International Labour Organization estimates that every year, 2.93 million workers die as a result of work-related factors with millions more suffering non-fatal work injuries.  On April 28, International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD), we mourn those workers and commit to fighting for the living.

As our climate warms, workers face an increased risk of exposure to excessive heat, which can be fatal. In all IUF sectors — in fields, in kitchens, in factories, in hospitality and tourism — workers risk being exposed to excessive heat. A report produced by the ILO confirms that 71% of the working population is exposed to excessive heat, resulting in 22.85 million injuries and 18,970 deaths annually.

  • For IWMD 2025, the IUF has produced a leaflet to raise awareness and propose measures unions can take to protect workers.
  • The leaflet — Heat Kills — spells out that heat at work must be dealt with immediately, that employers have to fulfill their responsibilities to provide safe and healthy workplaces and that governments must develop legal protections.
  • IUF Acting General Secretary Kristjan Bragason comments: “Our members are on the front line of the climate crisis every day, and they need better protection to match the ever-increasing danger from rising temperatures that is already evident in all our regions.”
  • The IUF will develop more materials on the dangers of excessive heat, will challenge companies to engage with us on how to tackle excessive heat at work, and will work with our sister Global Union Federations to ensure international standards are in place to protect workers.
  • The IUF 28th Congress in 2023 adopted new commitments on tackling the climate crisis, which is driving the increase in temperature and increasingly unstable weather patterns that affect all workers.

The Heat Kills leaflet is available in EnglishFrench and Spanish. 

Indonesia: Serbuk Indonesia lays bare hidden dust crisis [Video]

On the eve of International Workers’ Memorial Day #IWMD2025, Serbuk Indonesia laid bare a hidden crisis through a powerful new video: the harrowing toll of wood dust on workers’ lives. Behind every crafted piece lies a silent, deadly hazard ; one that scars lungs, steals breath, and ends dreams. Through the voices and faces of affected workers, SERBUK reminds us that health is not a privilege but a right, and that no worker should risk life and limb to earn a living. Let this be a call to action: to demand safer workplaces, stronger protections, and dignity for every worker who builds our world, one breath at a time. #StopDeadlyDust

Türkiye: Joint 28 Ppril call for safe and decent working conditions – Türkiye Yol-İş Sendikası, AĞAÇ-İŞ, CIMSE-IS and Türkiye Orman-İş Sendikası

BWI affiliates in Türkiye, Türkiye Yol-İş Sendikası, AĞAÇ-İŞ, CIMSE-IS and Türkiye Orman-İş Sendikası, held a joint meeting to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day #IWMD2025 by calling for safe and decent working conditions for all workers in line with the BWI’s action call.
Unions declared that the field of occupational health and safety in Turkey has been regulated by a separate law since 2012. What has happened since then shows that legal regulations alone have no benefit in preventing occupational accidents.
They stressed the fact that it is trade unions having a great influence on the formation of an OSH culture as workplace accidents are much lower in unionised workplaces compared to other workplaces. Unionised workers avoid unsafe behaviours in the workplace.
Therefore, the union is actually the guarantee of safety. For this reason, they call for the need of removing the obstacles to organisation is also very important in terms of preventing occupational accidents.

Jordan: GWTUC taking action against deadly dust on 28 April

From the heart of Jordan, BWI affiliate GTUCW is taking action! As part of this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, they are leading the fight against deadly dust, running the campaign across multiple workplaces to demand safer, healthier conditions for all workers. No more toxic air! Our lives depend on it! #IWMD2025 #StopDeadlyDust

Zimbabwe: Building a strong, safer movement – ZCATWU

In Zimbabwe, the BWI-affiliated ZCATWU is stepping up! Ahead of International Workers’ Memorial Day, they gathered workers for an awareness programme on the dangers of deadly dust, while driving efforts to organise and recruit more members. Together, they are building a stronger, safer movement — because every worker’s life matters! #IWMD2025 #StopDeadlyDust

Ukraine: Profbud – Standing strong for workers’ lives on 28 April

Standing strong for workers’ lives: BWI-affiliated PROFBUD joins this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, rallying behind the global campaign to end deadly dust in workplaces. Every worker deserves a safe and healthy job! #IWMD2025 #StopDeadlyDust

Italy: Safe Day – Giornata mondiale sicurezza lavoro: sindacati edili depongono corona all’Inail – FILCA CISL

In occasione della giornata mondiale per la salute e sicurezza sul lavoro, i rappresentanti di Feneal, Filca, Fillea, le categorie che tutelano il settore delle costruzioni di Cgil, Cisl e Uil, si sono recati presso la sede dell’Inail a Piazzale Pastore, per deporre una corona di fiori davanti al monumento in memoria degli operai che persero la vita durante lo scavo del traforo di San Gottardo. Prima della deposizione i rappresentanti hanno avuto un incontro con il direttore generale Marcello Fiori, un momento di confronto per analizzare e valutare le misure per la prevenzione degli infortuni e le malattie professionali e anche riguardanti i nuovi rischi connessi alla rivoluzione digitale e alla riorganizzazione del mondo del lavoro.
“Quello di oggi è un appuntamento di grande importanza – sottolinea Marcello Fiori – che rende omaggio alle vittime sul lavoro e testimonia la imprescindibile necessità di un impegno comune tra le parti sociali e le Istituzioni nell’azione di contrasto alla tragedia degli infortuni sul lavoro e delle malattie professionali. Restano fortissime le parole pronunciate da Papa Francesco in occasione dell’udienza dedicata all’Inail: senza tutele e sicurezza per i lavoratori prevale nella società, la cultura dello “scarto”. Rimettere al centro la persona significa “vedere, avere compassione, farsi vicini, fasciare le ferite, farsi carico” e considerare tutti gli infortunati, persone e non numeri. Missione fondamentale dell’Istituto deve essere quella della prevenzione che richiede un accordo, un impegno corale e il pieno coinvolgimento di tutte le Istituzioni e le parti sociali, come il Presidente della Repubblica ci esorta energicamente a realizzare, per mettere in campo tutti gli strumenti necessari: norme tecniche aggiornate e puntuali, informazione e formazione dei lavoratori e dei responsabili per la sicurezza, incentivi e finanziamenti al sistema delle imprese per innovazione tecnologica e sistemi di gestione per la salute e la sicurezza, un efficace e diffuso sistema di controlli”.
“I numeri – dichiarano i segretari di FenealUil, Filca Cisl e Fillea Cgil– continuano ad essere preoccupanti, con 1.090 vittime nel 2024, 49 in più rispetto al 2023, di cui 156 nelle costruzioni, che si riconferma tra i settori più a rischio. Gli infortuni in più rispetto all’anno precedente sono stati 4.215, e 15.745 le denunce di malattie professionali. Anche oggi c’è stato un incidente mortale sul lavoro nella cava di marmo di Miseglia costato la vita ad un uomo di 59 anni.
In questa giornata così importante le nostre categorie, che combattono ogni giorno per contrastare le irregolarità, tutelare i lavoratori e cambiare la cultura sulla sicurezza sul lavoro, avviano una fase collaborativa con Inail, attraverso un tavolo permanente sulla prevenzione in materia di salute e sicurezza che ci auguriamo porterà alla sottoscrizione di un protocollo operativo, in grado di generare effetti concreti quanto prima”.

 

Philippines: Photos from EEI Grand Middori Project commemoration

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2025 – EEI Grand Middori Project

Global: International Workers’ Memorial Day 2025: Protecting workers’ rights in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence – ITUC

The ITUC is using this year’s International Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, to call for urgent action to safeguard workers’ lives and rights in the age of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is transforming the world of work at unprecedented speed. But behind the promise of innovation lies a darker reality: algorithmic management, constant surveillance, impossible productivity targets, and dangerous working conditions. Technology is being used not to improve working conditions and safety, but to exploit them — putting lives and health at risk.

  • AI-driven management is already intensifying pressure on 427 million workers worldwide.
  • 80% of large employers use AI to track individual worker productivity.
  • Workers are facing burnout, injuries and unbearable stress from non-stop monitoring, unrealistic targets and zero input on how technology is used.

“Too often artificial intelligence is being deployed not as a tool for progress but as a weapon against workers.”ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle

“From warehouses to hospitals, delivery bikes to data labs, workers are under pressure like never before. The deployment of new technologies must respect the norms of any other changes in the workplace: workers have a right be consulted and included. This basic, democratic, workplace right will ensure the use of AI is designed with safety, fairness and dignity at is core. Workers and their unions must have a seat at the table for the benefit of all.”

Deployment of new technologies, such as AI, without proper consultation with workers and their unions is already causing serious problems around the world:

  • In the Philippines, 19-year-old delivery rider Jasper Dalman died while working for Foodpanda. His union, RIDERS-SENTRO, won recognition and insurance rights after his death highlighted the deadly consequences of algorithmic exploitation that set impossible productivity targets.
  • In Turkey, TikTok content moderators employed by Telus were sacked after organising against inhumane AI-managed workloads and trauma-inducing content.
  • In the US, nurses working through platforms face AI-controlled shift apps that bypass worker protections that create dangerous conditions for them and their patients.

The ITUC is calling for:

  • Full involvement of unions in the design and deployment of workplace AI.
  • Transparent, human-centred technology that upholds rights and safety.
  • A binding ILO Convention on platform work to protect all workers in the digital economy.

This 28 April, we remember the dead – and fight for the living. Technology should work for us, not against us.

The new ITUC report, ‘Artificial intelligence and digitalisation: A matter of life and death for workers’, identifies the physical and psychosocial harms at work when these technologies are introduced without consulting workers. Check out the campaign materials.

https://www.ituc-csi.org/International-Workers-Memorial-Day-2025

UK: Unite members to remember the dead on April 28

Unite members are being urged to get involved with this year’s International Workers Memorial Day (IWMD), with plans well underway for country wide commemoration events to “remember the dead and fight for the living” later this month.

The annual event is held around the world every year on April 28 as workers gather to reflect on fellow workers lost or injured while just doing their jobs.

This year Unite members are organising memorials around the country, and joining in many others and the union has produced lots of resources and guides to help branches get involved.

For 2025 the International TUC theme is “Occupational health and safety: A fundamental right at work” including an explicit additional focus on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digitisation on occupational health and safety.

Events will be happening across the country. In London construction workers will gather at the Building Workers memorial at Tower Hill, in Somerset workers from Hinkley Point C will mark the day at a memorial in Bridgwaters’ Blake Gardens and in Glasgow workers will gather at the memorial in the People’s Palace.

The central Birmingham event will highlight the safety-critical factor behind Unite’s local bins dispute, and remember David Carpenter, a binman for Coventry City Council, who died after being crushed in a bin lorry in 2023.

There are also events at the Unite Memorial in Liverpool, Lincoln Square in Manchester and many many more.

Global partners that Unite works with also have themes for the day of remembrance, for example BWI will highlight its “Too Hot to Work” campaign around the dangers of heat stress, as well as launching its “Stop Deadly Dust” campaign.

Read moreUnite 28 April resources