In response to the violent invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military, the global labor movement has taken unprecedented action to provide solidarity and aid to the people of Ukraine. The AFL-CIO, among many other unions around the world, has issued a statement condemning the invasion, and state federations and central labor councils have begun to issue similar resolutions. Unions, including AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have passed resolutions calling for the divestment of pension fund investments with ties to Russia.
The AFL-CIO's allied organization, the Solidarity Center, has had an office in Ukraine for more than 15 years. It supports a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization called Labor Initiatives, a labor rights advocacy and legal aid center with offices in Kyiv and in the Donbas region town of Dobropillya. Before the war, the Solidarity Center was implementing programs focused on worker legal aid, legislative analysis, training for trade union youth activists and leaders, organizing platform workers, promoting gender equality and fighting discrimination in the workplace, and assisting efforts by unions to fight employer corruption. Today, the Solidarity Center's office in Ukraine is supporting its partners to provide humanitarian assistance to union members, their families and communities.
Affiliates such as the AFT, with long-standing partners in Ukraine, have donated directly to local relief funds. Other unions, including the UAW, the United Steelworkers and the United Food and Commercial Workers, are also working with industry-specific global union federations, like IndustriAll Global Union and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), to fund relief efforts. The Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) union, among many other unions and individuals around the world, also has contributed to the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC’s) public fundraising drive.
The ITUC funds are being used to support humanitarian aid inside Ukraine through two national trade union centers, the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVPU) and the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine (FPU), as well as to help refugees in Ukraine’s neighboring countries. Within Ukraine, the funds are supporting the purchase and transportation of humanitarian material, including food, hygiene products, medical supplies, cooking equipment and bedding for 10 residential facilities operated by FPU in west Ukraine, where thousands of refugees have been staying. Many more individual unions in Ukraine—including the ones from the health care, shipping, agriculture, railways, construction and mining sectors—have also garnered resources to help protect workers and communities on the front-lines of the crisis.
With men of working age required to stay in Ukraine, the large majority of those fleeing the country are women and children. Estimates indicate that, in addition to the more than 6.5 million people displaced within Ukraine, 3.5 million people have already fled the country. Unions in neighboring countries have taken outstanding action to provide Ukrainians safe refuge. The ITUC, together with the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), is helping these neighbor unions to host refugees.
In Poland, an ITUC affiliate, the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ), is housing hundreds of refugees in its own residential facility as well as at the property run by the OPZZ’s teachers’ union. Similar support is being provided to the Trade Unions Forum (FZZ), which is also housing refugees. The OPZZ and the ITUC’s other Polish affiliate, Solidarność, is also helping transport refugees and facilitating their access to medical and employment services in Poland. In Moldova, where refugees from Ukraine now account for 10% of the population in the country, the ITUC and ETUC are supporting the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) labor union center to house refugees. Croatian unions, among others, have produced educational material for refugees entering the labor market to help inform them of their rights and prevent exploitation. In Romania, the National Trade Union Bloc (BNS) is working with a transport union, whose members are traveling into Ukraine to provide free transportation, food and medicine to those fleeing to or through Romania.
Along with direct aid, unions across Europe, led by the ETUC, are using social dialogue channels with governments to welcome refugees and help shape assistance programs. Union members in schools across Europe also are helping Ukrainian children integrate into classes and ensuring they have access to clothing and school materials, among other essential items.
Beyond the efforts to help meet the immediate needs of Ukrainians, unions are preparing for the long-term impact the war is expected to have on economies and labor markets around the world. Unions are developing policies to address rising prices—especially for food and energy—and to ensure that the largest migration in Europe since World War II does not result in Ukrainian refugees being forced into substandard, unsafe or insecure work.
The global labor movement’s efforts to support Ukrainian workers and their families impacted by the devastation underscore the importance of international solidarity. The AFL-CIO will continue to stand with this strong global labor community to support policies that will bring security, peace and democracy, while providing solidarity and support to the people of Ukraine.