Reposted from the Ukraine solidarity convoy website

Trade union support for the International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine has been boosted by some important additions in recent weeks.

Probably the most notable gain came from the Swiss Trade Union Federation (SGB-USS), Switzerland’s principal peak trade union body, with some 385,000 members, whose president Pierre-Yves Maillard has a record of consistent support for Ukraine’s working people and their trade union organisations.

The Belgian trade union movement provided two more major endorsements of the Convoy: the 1.5 million member General Labour Federation of Belgium (ABVV-FGTB), of socialist orientation, joined the 1.6 million strong Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV-CSV) in expressing their support.

Another major boost for the Convoy came from the University and College Union (UCU) in the United Kingdom. The principal union covering academic and support staff in UK universities and other places of higher education, the UCU has around 120,000 members.

The 40,000-strong Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) added to its endorsement of the Convoy a very welcome contribution of €1000 to the project’s fund appeal.

A further appreciated endorsement and donation, of 10,000 Norwegian Kronor (€930), came from the Theatre and Performing Arts Trade Union of Norway.

The Brazilian Trade Union and Popular Centre ConLutas, covering two million workers and a wide range of associated social movements, was an early supporter of the Convoy, setting an example for other worker organisations to follow.

Alfons Bech, coordinator of the Convoy’s trade union working group, said that the growth in support reflected two trends: “increasing awareness among trade unionists across Europe that, firstly, their brothers and sisters in Ukraine are essential to the country’s resistance to the Kremlin’s criminal war and, secondly, that the coming winter will see Putin undertake an all-out offensive to break that resistance.”

Bech commented that he was sure that as this reality became even more clear, still more of Europe’s trade unions would endorse the Convoy as a potent symbol of people-to-people solidarity.