LabourStart: Where trade unionists start their day on the net.
LabourStart is the news and campaigning website of the international trade union movement.
Founded in 1998, we are the web's best source of trade union news, uploaded by our volunteers in dozens of languages. Our online campaigns, offered free of charge to trade unions, often help win victories for workers around the world. And from time to time, we hold Global Solidarity Conferences in different cities.
Please visit our website at https://www.labourstart.org and support with a donation (if you can) here: https://www.labourstart.org/pico/?en/donate. THANK YOU!
Episodes
32 episodes
USA: Interview with Dr Debbie Goldman, author of Disconnected: Call Center Workers Fight for Good Jobs in the Digital Age
Dr Debbie Goldman worked for 28 years at the Communication Workers of America (CWA) and is an expert on the subject of call centre workers. In this short interview we discussed her new book,
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13:41
Belarus: Interview with Luc Triangle, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Luc Triangle, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), was LabourStart's guest this week on our podcast. The ITUC represents around 200 million workers in 169 countries and territories and has 340 national...
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9:07
Azerbaijan: Interview with Nilufar Mammadrzayeva
Nilufar Mammadrzayeva is an activist in İşçi Masası (Labor Desk), an alternative Confederation of Trade Unions operating in Azerbaijan. As she explained to us, "Right now, four of our comrades are facing dire conditions in prison due to t...
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11:12
Canada: Interview with Mark Hancock
This week, LabourStart's Pat Bulmer interviews Mark Hancock, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees -- the largest union in the country. Mark was asked to speak about the union's recently-adopted "Montreal Declaratio...
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12:46
Belarus: Interview with Liza Merliak, exiled trade unionist
LabourStart's podcast this week is - unfortunately - about Belarus, which is probably the worst place in Europe to be a trade unionist. We are now coming up on the 3rd anniversary of the mass arrests of Belarusian trade union leaders and ...
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13:07
Turkey: Interview with Kıvanç Eliaçık, Director of International Relations Department for DISK
This week's LabourStart interview is with Kıvanç Eliaçık from DISK, one of Turkey's national trade union centres. We talked about workers' rights in Turkey, the role played by LabourStart and global unions, what individuals can do to help...
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16:49
Interview with Daniel Blackburn from the International Centre for Trade Union Rights
This week's LabourStart podcast is a short interview with Daniel Blackburn, who runs the International Centre for Trade Union Rights (ICTUR), based in London. Daniel spoke with us about ICTUR's history, the journal it produces (Internatio...
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12:12
Canada: Interview with Stephanie Ross & Larry Savage
The LabourStart Podcast this week -- our first in 2025 -- is an interview with two Canadian writers who've written an important new book about one of the country's largest trade unions.Stephanie Ross is an associate professor in the Sch...
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20:29
Interview with Tamar Ansiani, one of the striking workers at Evolution Gaming, Georgia
This week we interviewed Tamar Ansiani, who in addition to being a striker (one of over 4,000) at the Swedish-owned Evolution Gaming in Georgia, is also a vice president of LABOR, a Georgian trade union. Tamar spoke about the reasons for ...
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9:07
Interview with Sultana Hossain from the Amazon Labor Union in the USA
"We were dying," says Sultana Hossain, describing the conditions that led thousands of Amazon employees in New York City to begin organising into a trade union. Initially, their union was independent and had no backing from anyone else --...
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13:15
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Interview with Carlos Ching-Hung Wang, the president of the China Steel Express Union (Taiwan)
China Steel Express (CSE), the most profitable subsidiary of Taiwan's largest state-owned enterprise, China Steel Corporation (CSC), has long exploited Taiwanese seafarers through illegal fixed-term contracts. Recently, CSE replaced Taiwanese s...
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6:37
The struggle for jobs and dignity at Liberty Steel
An interview with Judith Kirton-Darling, general secretary of IndustriAll Europe, about the ongoing fight of Liberty Steel workers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in the face of catastrophic job losses. Judith talks about the ba...
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14:38
Interview with Srđan from Radnicki Glas (Workers Voice) in Serbia
This week we interviewed Srđan from Radnicki Glas (Workers Voice) in Serbia. The group is very involved with the ongoing campaign at the Yura factories in Serbia -- which is the subject of a LabourStart ActNOW campaign. (
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14:46
Interview with David Edwards, General Secretary of the Education International
We spoke with David Edwards just three weeks before the opening of the congress of the Education International, which unites trade unions of teachers and other educational professionals. The EI is one of the biggest global unions -- it ha...
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11:13
Interview with Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of IndustriAll Europe
Less than 24 hours after the results of the first round of the French legislative elections were known, and with the threat of a far Right government for the first time since Vichy, we interviewed Judith Kirton-Darling. Judith is General ...
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11:29
Interview with Macarena Grimalt Fernandes, Argentinian trade unionist
Earlier this month there were giant protests across Argentina following the attempts by the country's new president, Javier Gerardo Milei, to impose his dystopian vision on the country. Milei's government is cracking down on workers' righ...
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10:35
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Interview with Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
This week, we spoke with Esther Lynch, the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). The ETUC represents 45 million members from 93 trade union organisations in 41 European countries, plus 10 European Trade Union...
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18:11
Interview with Khaing Zar, trade union leader from Myanmar
Khaing Zar is President of the Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar (IWFM) and Treasurer of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM). Forced into exile following the military coup d'etat in February 2021, she is a leading s...
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14:03
Interview with Jan Willem Goudriaan, General Secretary of the European Public Service Union (EPSU)
This week we interviewed Jan Willem Goudriaan, General Secretary of the European Public Service Union (EPSU). EPSU brings together trade unions from across Europe. It influences the policies and decisions of employers, governments...
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11:34
Interview with Luc Triangle, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
Luc Triangle is the new general secretary of the global labour movement's peak body, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The ITUC represents 191 million workers united in 340 affiliated national trade union centres around ...
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13:15
Interview with Rebecca Owens, flight attendant at Alaska Airlines and proud trade unionist
Rebecca Owens is a proud flight attendant and active member of AFA (Association of Flight Attendants)-CWA Council 30 in Anchorage, Alaska. She has stepped up as her union is in contract negotiations at Alaska Airlines by helping to organize inf...
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12:33
Interview with Amanda Gearing and Darren Westwood about the strike by Amazon workers in the UK
Darren is an Amazon worker and Amanda is a senior organiser for the GMB union in the UK. Together, they tell a story of low pay, union busting and an atmosphere of fear at Amazon -- but also a story of courage, solidarity and hope as work...
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10:49
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Interview with Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress
When Bea Bruske was a teenager she found herself walking a picket line for many months -- a strike prolonged unnecessarily because her employer had hired scabs. Today she's the President of the Canadian Labour Congress and is leading the ...
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13:22
Interview with Ahmad Badawy, Egyptian trade union activist
The textile workers at Egypt's state-owned Mahalla factory have a history they can be proud of -- their strikes helped to bring down the Mubarak dictatorship. In March 2024, when the Egyptian government decided to exclude them from a mini...
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12:05
Interview with Sally McManus, Secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU)
Australia under its new Labor government is seeing a huge revival of the trade union movement with new "closing loopholes" laws that strengthen workers' rights. At the centre of the struggle is Sally McManus and the Australian trade union...
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8:43
