IndustriALL, a global union federation, has called on international brands and investors to withdraw from Myanmar citing the military regime’s blatant and unacceptable assault on independent trade unions.

The State Administration Council (SAC) has established a parallel, illegitimate trade union structure in a bid to weaken the legitimate labour movement, the global platform said in a statement issued on February 6.

It said that the state-backed crackdown on trade unions violated international labour standards, including the core principles of Freedom of Association (Convention No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (Convention No. 98).

Rather than implementing the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (COI), the SAC is escalating its efforts to dismantle independent trade unions, replacing them with state-controlled entities that erode workers’ rights, IndustriALL alleged.

IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie said that the situation in Myanmar demanded urgent international action, as the creation of the MLC constituted a direct attack on workers’ rights and independent trade unionism.

‘The international community must hold the SAC accountable and demand the restoration of genuine freedom of association and the right to organise for Myanmar’s workers. International brands and investors who continue to operate in Myanmar must finally open their eyes and leave the country,’ Høie said.

IndustriALL has been informed its affiliate the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), who is a member of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), that the SAC is promoting the Myanmar Labour Confederation (MLC), a state-backed body designed to replace independent unions like CTUM and IWFM, the statement read.

The SAC launched the MLC in 2023, when its deputy minister of labour summoned workers in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone and instructed them to replace CTUM’s leadership.

Since then, evidence has shown that the MLC has closely collaborated with the SAC’s ministry of labour (MOL), misrepresenting itself as CTUM to workers, employers and international stakeholders, the global union federation said.

It also said that these actions revealed the regime’s strategy to dismantle independent unions by using state control over the ministry of labour to elevate its own entity.

‘The SAC escalated its interference in January, this year, when the MLC organised an event falsely presented as a union education workshop. In reality, it served as a platform to install pro-SAC leadership within IWFM, conducted under heavy surveillance by police and special branch officers,’ the statement said.

This heavy-handed security presence demonstrated the SAC’s direct involvement in suppressing workers’ right to organise and associate freely, without fear of state intervention,’ the global platform claimed.