UNI Global Union

01/09/2026

🚨36-hour shifts. Wage theft. Sexual harassment for a "better" posting.

A new UNI report exposes what guards face while protecting valuable mines & security operations in South Africa, DRC & Uganda.

Full report: https://uniglobalunion.org/news/failure-g4s

28/08/2026

UNI Asia & Pacific expresses solidarity with victims of Nepal’s deadly floods and supports union-led relief and recovery efforts nationwide.

27/08/2026

🇨🇿 Less than two years since setting up their union, 1,300 Microsoft workers in the Czech Republic have won a landmark collective bargaining agreement. They've secured better pension benefits, higher severance packages and better company communication.

“We expect more than just an improvement in conditions at Microsoft from this contract,” Barbora Müllerová from ICT odbory / ICT union said, “The way employees at Microsoft organized themselves and successfully negotiated better conditions is, in our view, a prime example of how things should work across the wider IT sector. This is not just about one company and one contract – it is proof that workers have the power to change their workplaces when they band together and bargain collectively.”

“This collective agreement represents more than just a win for the employees at Microsoft; it lays the groundwork for broader unionization efforts in the country’s fast-growing but traditionally hard-to-organize tech industry,” said Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary. “All across Europe, from Ireland to Czechia, more and more tech workers are organizing for dignity, rights and collective bargaining. UNI Europa will continue to support them every step of the way.”

The ICT union is affiliated to UNI through the Odborový svaz pracovníků peněžnictví a pojišťovnictví - OSPPP

26/08/2026

Hundreds of workers organized by UNI-affiliated Romanian unions in the commerce, tech and finance sectors protested on 25 August 2026 in front of Bucharest’s Ministry of Labour.

The trade unions met with Minister Dragoș Pîslaru to demand the government supports unblocking sectoral collective bargaining in the private sector and raising the minimum wage by 1 January 2027.

Employers are walking away from the table. Some refuse to negotiate, others leave employers' organizations altogether to avoid sectoral agreements. Thousands of workers are left with no collective protection, and in low-wage sectors such as retail a frozen minimum wage means unpaid bills, foregoing medical treatment and in-work poverty.

Collective bargaining and adequate wages go together. One cannot be delivered without the other.

24/08/2026

📢 UNI condemns abhorrent Russian attack on Ukrainian shopping centre 🇺🇦

UNI Global Union stands in unwavering solidarity with Ukrainian workers and trade unions in the retail sector following the recent devastating Russian attack against a shopping mall.

We unreservedly condemn this atrocity.

Russian drones targeted a busy shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, on Friday 21 August. Ukrainian emergency services reported that the attack killed 16 people and wounded 130 others, 23 of them children. A second drone strike about half an hour after the first was clearly targeted at emergency responders rushing to help the victims.

“This was an abhorrent attack designed to maximize civilian casualties. Russia’s deliberate targeting of workers, shoppers and emergency services is a flagrant violation of international norms and an affront to humanity,” said Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union.

“The suffering endured by the people of Ukraine is a stark reminder of the urgent need for a just resolution of this war."

Workers and their families on all sides continue to bear the costs of war through death, displacement and the destruction of their homes, workplaces, livelihoods and communities.

UNI, together with the entire global trade union movement reiterates our call for peace, the restoration of Ukraine’s sovereignty and assurances that future reconstruction will take place in full alignment with respect for workers’ rights.

24/08/2026

20/08/2026

✨AI is not coming to retail work 🛒🛍️ It is already there – setting the pace of shifts, deciding rosters and, in some stores, deciding when workers are disciplined.

UNI President and SDA - the Union for Workers in Retail, Fast Food & Warehousing National Secretary-Treasurer Gerard Dwyer sat down with UNI General Secretary Christy Hoffman to discuss For All of Us: Making AI Work for Working People, the report the SDA commissioned from the John Curtin Research Centre.

One story stands out. A store delegate with 30 years' experience was flagged by an AI checkout monitoring system for a scan accuracy rate of 99.8 per cent – roughly one error in 533 scans. The system escalated it automatically to head office. No department manager, no store manager, no union organizer got the chance to intervene along the way. By the time a person looked at it, it was a written warning.

That is what algorithmic management without human oversight looks like in practice, and it is why unions need a seat at the table before these systems are switched on.

Part 1 of three 👉 https://uniglobalunion.org/news/making-ai-work-for-working-people-part-1/

19/08/2026

In response to the ongoing illegal attacks on Palestinians throughout the occupied territories, UNI Global Union calls on the Israeli government to end the impunity of settlers who commit acts of extreme violence against Palestinians.

We also condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the ongoing campaign of forced displacement in which the government is complicit or an active party.

In one recent attack, settlers stormed Palestinian homes and a mosque in the town of Idhna, injuring many people, including trade union activist Imad Tmaiza, a member of UNI Palestinian affiliate the National Trade Union of Banking and Insurance.

UNI General Secretary Christy Hoffman said:

“The global trade union movement cannot stand by in silence against this growing violence. It has harmed one of our own, and so it has touched all of us. We hope that Imad Tmaiza makes a full recovery, but we know that until there is freedom from occupation and true protection for the rights of Palestinians, he, his family and his community will live under the threat of another attack.

“The government of Israel must act immediately to halt this escalating violence. And around the world, those of us who care about peace and justice must add our voices to the demand for immediate protection of Palestinian civilians, workers and trade unionists.”

12/08/2026

🌍 Happy International Youth Day! Let's hear from Crisnalda Nhamucale, UNI Africa Youth president from SINECOSSE union in 🇲🇿 Mozambique ✊

11/08/2026

🇷🇴 When your employer tries to take away your hard won benefits and protections - you fight back💪 We stand with bank workers at BRD - Groupe Societe Generale, one of Romania’s largest banks, who will hold a two-hour warning strike on 13 August after overwhelmingly voting to reject a new inferior contract.

Negotiations for a new company-wide collective agreement between BRD and IMPACT Union – affiliated to UNI through Romanian federation FSIF Federatia Sindicatelor din Industria Financiara – broke down after the bank unilaterally proposed a new contract which would strip away or water down benefits, including protections against dismissal, meal and holiday vouchers, loyalty bonuses, pension contributions, transport reimbursement and family-related benefits, as well as adequate pay rises for staff on the lowest wages.

"Our members are not asking for privileges," says IMPACT Union president Razvan Carstoiu. "They are asking BRD to preserve rights already negotiated."
https://uniglobalunion.org/news/bank-workers-romania-reject-brd-societe-generale-contract/