Australian unions can help hold Myanmar’s military junta to account.
“In 2022, the military junta said I’m not a citizen of Burma anymore,” Maung Maung told Australian unionists and activists at the NSW Trades Hall.
Maung Maung is the President of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar (CTUM). Since the military coup, trade unionists have been persecuted, jailed, forced into hiding or exile, and stripped of their citizenship.
“They don’t want us to come here to talk about them,” he said.
But this is not the first time Myanmar’s union movement has had to organise underground.
Maung Maung has been fighting for workers’ rights since the 1988 uprising, when students and workers joined together to challenge the military dictatorship. Decades later, despite immense danger, a new generation of unionists continues that struggle.
Inside Myanmar, young trade unionists are documenting workers’ struggles and exposing human rights abuses, often at great personal risk. Their courage, combined with international solidarity, helped secure a landmark victory against the military regime: the invocation of Article 33 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Constitution.
A historic victory for workers’ rights
Article 33 is the ILO’s strongest enforcement mechanism. It can only be invoked when a government persistently refuses to address serious violations of international labour standards.
It has been used only a handful of times in the ILO’s history.
Its adoption against Myanmar sends a powerful message: the military junta’s attacks on trade unionists, widespread use of forced labour and destruction of democratic freedoms are unacceptable.
The decision confirms that the junta is in serious breach of ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Convention No. 29 on Forced Labour, representing one of the strongest international condemnations of the regime to date.
The resolution calls on governments around the world to ensure they are not enabling, facilitating, or prolonging the violations of workers’ rights through any relations they may have with the military authorities, including through the supply of military equipment or means, including jet fuel, or the free flow of funds to the military authorities.
“We need Australia’s leadership”
Maung Maung came to Australia with a clear message from the CTUM.
“We don’t have the arms, but we have the hearts; the young people have held the ground. We need the will of the Australian Government to work with ASEAN to hold the regime accountable.”
The CTUM is calling on Australia to build on its strong support for the ILO resolution:
“Australia strongly supported the historic adoption of ILO Article 33 last year. Our request is for Australia, as a regional leader, to host a Myanmar side meeting at the ILO Governing Body in November.”
Time is running out
While the world celebrated the holiday season last December, Myanmar’s military junta staged sham elections, held in only around one-third of the country and excluding major opposition parties. Thousands of people were denied the opportunity to vote.
Meanwhile, Myanmar’s economy continues to deteriorate, and the humanitarian crisis deepens.
Trade unions and democratic movements are calling on ASEAN and the international community to stop the military regime from further entrenching its power.
ASEAN’s Five-Point Consensus, agreed in 2021, calls for an immediate end to violence, inclusive dialogue between all parties, and unrestricted humanitarian assistance. Yet the junta has repeatedly ignored these commitments.
The CTUM is urging Australia to ensure Myanmar remains excluded from ASEAN engagement until the military complies with ILO monitoring mechanisms and the Five-Point Consensus.
For Maung Maung, the issue is no longer whether governments support democracy in Myanmar, but whether they will act quickly enough.
“Now we are requesting that the Government seriously try to push this on a timeframe. Otherwise, it will be another 26 years of authoritarianism,” he warned, referring to Myanmar’s previous period of military rule. “We can’t afford that.”
What can Australian unionists do?
Australian unions have an important role to play.
The Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee has delivered one of Australia’s strongest assessments of the crisis in Myanmar. The Committee found that the junta’s 2025–26 election was neither free, fair nor inclusive, warning that it risks becoming a “cloak of respectability” for continued military rule.
The report also recognises that Myanmar’s crisis extends far beyond its borders, driving regional instability, forced migration, human trafficking, cybercrime and transnational organised crime.
Now is the time to keep the pressure on.
Learn more about the Committee’s recommendations here and stay tuned for opportunities to support workers and communities in Myanmar.
- If you’d like to take action, join Union Aid Abroad–APHEDA, email activists@apheda.org.au, or join the Myanmar Campaign Network by contacting mcn@apheda.org.au.
- If you are a unionist or activist ready to engage more with our work on the Thai-Myanmar, fill in this Expression of Interest to join our study tour to the border in February 2027: Read More.