The ICJ confirms that ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to strike

The advisory opinion of the 14-judge panel of the ICJ confirms, by ten votes to four, that ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to strike. The ICJ advisory opinion reaffirms the WFTU position that without the right to strike, there can be no effective implementation of freedom of association, the right to organise, and the right of workers' organisations to organise their administration and activities and to formulate their programmes.

The World Federation of Trade Unions, whose role was decisive in the creation of Convention No. 87 in 1948, condemned from the very first moment the attack on the right to strike and participated actively in the process, submitting a written statement to the International Court of Justice and taking part in the advisory proceedings through Lawyer Augusto Praca, a member of the WFTU Democratic and Trade Union Rights Committee.

The advisory opinion should once and for all put an end to the dispute over whether Convention No. 87 protects the right to strike. However, it is clear that the existence of a class-oriented and militant trade union movement is the essential, decisive, and irreplaceable factor to ensure that the right to strike, as well as conventions, collective bargaining, labor laws, and workers' achievements, are not merely empty words on paper but are implemented in practice. The WFTU reiterates its call for struggle in every country, sector, and workplace to safeguard the sacred right to strike in practice.