The international trade union movement
In October 2006, the world trade union confederations ICFTU and WCL were disolved, to be replaced on 1 November by a new international organisation that would welcome as its affiliates members of both of its predecessors and a number of unions that had been affiliated to neither organisation.

The new organisation has established a website www.ituc-csi.org

Writing for International Union Rights journal (volume 13.3), Peter Waterman laments a lack of press coverage of this event and argues that the international unions conducted their ‘merger’ (as he calls it) in ‘virtual invisibility’. Full story.

Also writing for IUR, Janek Kuczkiewicz and Sara Hammerton, senior staff from the ICFTU's Trade Union Rights Department, provide some valuable insights into what the priorities of the new organisation will be around the vital question of trade union rights. Full story.

Meanwhile, the Global Union Federations and TUAC will be closely associated with ITUC through the Global Unions Council.

The World Federation of Trade Unions has either not joined, or has not been invited to join, the new organisation. The WFTU's new website is at http://www.wftucentral.org.

Update: in July 2007 IUR journal investigated a new initiative to link up Unite and the USW in a transatlantic trade union structure. Read contrasting perspectives on that project plus an overview of international trade union structures from the German FES in IUR - access the full edition here.

A brief and incomplete guide to other international and regional trade union organisations
(A more complete version of this list, together with contact details for sectoral and industrial organisations, and historical overviews of the various organisations, appears in Trade Unions of the World 2005 John Harper Publishing / ICTUR).

Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL)
Address. NUPW Complex, Dalkeith Road, St. Michael, Barbados
Phone. 1246 427 5067
Fax. 1246 427 2496
E-mail. cclres@caribsurf.com

Confédération Européene des Syndicats Indépendants (CESI)
European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions
Address. Avenue de la Joyeuse Entrée 1–5, B–1040 Brussels, Belgium
Phone. +32.(0)2.282.18.70
Fax. +32.(0)2.282.18.71
E-mail. info@cesi.org
Website. www.cesi.org

European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)
Confédération Européene des Syndicats (CES)
Address. 5 Boulevard Roi Albert II, B–1210 Brussels, Belgium
Phone. 132 2 224 0411
Fax. 132 2 224 0454
E-mail. etuc@etuc.org
Website. www.etuc.org

International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU)
Address. PO Box 3225, Damascus, Syria
E-mail. icatu@icatu.org
Website. www.icatu.org (there are some English sections in the Arabic site, although the English language site is not yet available)

Nordens Fackliga Samorganisation (NFS)
Council of Nordic Trade Unions
Address. Drottninggatan 75, S-111 60 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone. 146 8 209 880
Fax. 146 8 789 8868
Website. www.nfs.net (in Nordic languages with some English sections)

Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU)
Organisation de l’Unité Syndicale Africaine (OUSA)
Address. PO Box M 386, Aviation Road, Accra, Ghana
Phone. 1233 21 508 851/55
Fax. 1233 21 508 851/53
E-mail. oatuu@ighmail.com

Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC)
Address. 26 avenue de la Grande Armée, 75017 Paris, France
Phone. +33 015537 37 37
Fax. +33 01 47 5498
E-mail. tuac@tuac.org
Website. www.tuac.org

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)
Fédération Syndicale Mondiale (FSM)
Address. 40, Zan Moreas Str., 117 45, Athens, Greece.
Phone. +30 210 9214417
Fax. +30 210 9214517
E–mail. info@wftucentral.org
Website.: www.wftucentral.org