Fighting for the rights of LGBT+ workers: ITF affiliates to ILGA World

To coincide with this year’s Pride Month, the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) is proud to announce that we have joined ILGA World, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association.

ILGA World, founded in 1978, is a global voice for the rights of those who face discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and/or sex characteristics, and is made up of more than 1,700 organisations from over 160 countries.

The ITF’s affiliation is part of our rock-solid commitment to recognising, defending and advancing the rights of our LGBT+ members, and of LGBT+ workers and people everywhere.

This commitment was reaffirmed at our recent urban transport conference in Johannesburg, and again at our tourism section conference in Antigua. 

As politicians and governments around the world fail to deliver meaningful improvements to people’s lives, they are once again turning to scapegoating to avoid responsibility for their failures. But as violence and hostility is whipped up and escalated towards our LGBT+ siblings, it is imperative that the trade union movement responds with solidarity.

We know that attacks on one worker are an attack on all; that homophobic, biphobic and transphobic scapegoating offer no solutions to the problems we face; and that our movement is stronger for the tireless contributions of our LGBT+ members.

We look forward to joining our fellow global union federations - Public Services International (PSI) and the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF) - as an active ILGA member and strengthening the alliance between organised labour and the LGBT+ movement ahead of ILGA’s next World Conference in South Africa in 2024.