Activists from the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, the Democratic Citizens' Media Alliance, and labor organizations hold a joint press conference on migrant domestic care worker policies in front of Seoul City Hall in Seoul, South Korea, on February 27, 2025.
Report Details Global Deterioration of Workers' Rights—Including in US Under Trump
"Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the U.S. or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook," the report states.
A report released Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation, a global network of unions, states that workers' rights around the world are in "free fall"—including in the United States, where U.S. President Donald Trump has taken "a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers."
The report, titled The 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index, details "a stark and worsening global crisis for workers and unions."
The index, which first began in 2014, is a review of workers' rights in law and in practice. It ranks countries along a criteria of nearly 100 indicators, such as whether there is a "general prohibition of the right to collective bargaining" or whether "killing or enforced disappearance of trade unionists" take place.
Depending on how many indicators they rack up, countries are ranked from 1-5+, based on their degree of respect for workers' rights. 5+ is the worst ranking a country can get. Each year, violations are recorded from April until March.
According to the index, in 2025, average country ratings deteriorated in three out of five global regions, with Europe and the Americas recording their worst scores since 2014.
The Americas earned a score of 3.68 and Europe notched 2.78, which is worse than the 1.84 score the continent received in 2014. That latter score constitutes the largest drop in any region of the world in the last decade, per the report.
"Governments have collaborated in decades of deregulation, neoliberalism, and neglect, leading to the collapse of workers' rights. This has disenfranchised millions and paved the way for extremism, authoritarianism, and the billionaire coup against democracy that now threatens democracy itself," said ITUC general secretary Luc Triangle in a statement published Monday.
"If this pace of decline continues, in ten years there will be no country left in the world with the highest rating for its respect for workers' rights," he continued. "This is a global scandal, but it is not unavoidable; it is a deliberate decision that can be reversed."
The report also states that 87% of countries violated the right to strike, 80% of countries violated the right to collective bargaining, and in 72% of countries, workers had zero or reduced access to justice, an increase from 65% the year prior.
"In the United States, the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labor rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking," according to the report.
Triangle told The Guardian that the report covers the time period up to March 2025. The report references various attacks by the Trump administration on workers, such as efforts to drastically reduce personnel at the U.S. Department of Education and the firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, denying the agency a quorum.
Since then, the Trump administration has also cut staff at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and sought to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees via executive order.
"Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the U.S. or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world," the report states.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. In a few short weeks, US voters will have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
A report released Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation, a global network of unions, states that workers' rights around the world are in "free fall"—including in the United States, where U.S. President Donald Trump has taken "a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers."
The report, titled The 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index, details "a stark and worsening global crisis for workers and unions."
The index, which first began in 2014, is a review of workers' rights in law and in practice. It ranks countries along a criteria of nearly 100 indicators, such as whether there is a "general prohibition of the right to collective bargaining" or whether "killing or enforced disappearance of trade unionists" take place.
Depending on how many indicators they rack up, countries are ranked from 1-5+, based on their degree of respect for workers' rights. 5+ is the worst ranking a country can get. Each year, violations are recorded from April until March.
According to the index, in 2025, average country ratings deteriorated in three out of five global regions, with Europe and the Americas recording their worst scores since 2014.
The Americas earned a score of 3.68 and Europe notched 2.78, which is worse than the 1.84 score the continent received in 2014. That latter score constitutes the largest drop in any region of the world in the last decade, per the report.
"Governments have collaborated in decades of deregulation, neoliberalism, and neglect, leading to the collapse of workers' rights. This has disenfranchised millions and paved the way for extremism, authoritarianism, and the billionaire coup against democracy that now threatens democracy itself," said ITUC general secretary Luc Triangle in a statement published Monday.
"If this pace of decline continues, in ten years there will be no country left in the world with the highest rating for its respect for workers' rights," he continued. "This is a global scandal, but it is not unavoidable; it is a deliberate decision that can be reversed."
The report also states that 87% of countries violated the right to strike, 80% of countries violated the right to collective bargaining, and in 72% of countries, workers had zero or reduced access to justice, an increase from 65% the year prior.
"In the United States, the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labor rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking," according to the report.
Triangle told The Guardian that the report covers the time period up to March 2025. The report references various attacks by the Trump administration on workers, such as efforts to drastically reduce personnel at the U.S. Department of Education and the firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, denying the agency a quorum.
Since then, the Trump administration has also cut staff at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and sought to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees via executive order.
"Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the U.S. or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world," the report states.
A report released Monday by the International Trade Union Confederation, a global network of unions, states that workers' rights around the world are in "free fall"—including in the United States, where U.S. President Donald Trump has taken "a wrecking ball to the collective labour rights of workers."
The report, titled The 2025 ITUC Global Rights Index, details "a stark and worsening global crisis for workers and unions."
The index, which first began in 2014, is a review of workers' rights in law and in practice. It ranks countries along a criteria of nearly 100 indicators, such as whether there is a "general prohibition of the right to collective bargaining" or whether "killing or enforced disappearance of trade unionists" take place.
Depending on how many indicators they rack up, countries are ranked from 1-5+, based on their degree of respect for workers' rights. 5+ is the worst ranking a country can get. Each year, violations are recorded from April until March.
According to the index, in 2025, average country ratings deteriorated in three out of five global regions, with Europe and the Americas recording their worst scores since 2014.
The Americas earned a score of 3.68 and Europe notched 2.78, which is worse than the 1.84 score the continent received in 2014. That latter score constitutes the largest drop in any region of the world in the last decade, per the report.
"Governments have collaborated in decades of deregulation, neoliberalism, and neglect, leading to the collapse of workers' rights. This has disenfranchised millions and paved the way for extremism, authoritarianism, and the billionaire coup against democracy that now threatens democracy itself," said ITUC general secretary Luc Triangle in a statement published Monday.
"If this pace of decline continues, in ten years there will be no country left in the world with the highest rating for its respect for workers' rights," he continued. "This is a global scandal, but it is not unavoidable; it is a deliberate decision that can be reversed."
The report also states that 87% of countries violated the right to strike, 80% of countries violated the right to collective bargaining, and in 72% of countries, workers had zero or reduced access to justice, an increase from 65% the year prior.
"In the United States, the Donald Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to the collective labor rights of workers and brought anti-union billionaires into the heart of policymaking," according to the report.
Triangle told The Guardian that the report covers the time period up to March 2025. The report references various attacks by the Trump administration on workers, such as efforts to drastically reduce personnel at the U.S. Department of Education and the firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, denying the agency a quorum.
Since then, the Trump administration has also cut staff at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and sought to strip the collective bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of government employees via executive order.
"Whether it's Donald Trump and Elon Musk in the U.S. or Javier Milei and Eduardo Eurnekian in Argentina, we see the same playbook of unfairness and authoritarianism in action around the world," the report states.