Overview
- The Confédération syndicale internationale released its 2026 World Rights Index on Monday, June 1, saying workers’ rights have deteriorated into a systemic crisis that now affects established democracies and fragile states.
- The index covers 151 countries using 97 indicators tied to ILO conventions and finds record levels of restrictions on expression and assembly, increased violence against workers, and arrests or detention of workers in roughly half of the countries surveyed.
- France received its worst-ever ranking for repression of union activists and limits on demonstrations, while the United States was newly placed on a ‘watchlist’ for restrictions on collective bargaining and the use of force against workers.
- CSI identifies three structural drivers behind the decline: prominent union leaders being targeted with arrests or legal action, expanding use of digital surveillance to monitor and punish workers, and governments excluding unions from lawmaking and reforms.
- The report names a dozen countries with effectively no guarantees of worker rights, highlights the Middle East and North Africa as the worst region, and warns that the rollback of labor rights could deepen democratic backsliding and weaken workers’ access to justice and safe organizing.