ITUC 2025 Index crisis: 87% of countries block strikes, 80% crush bargaining—Europe/Americas hit record lows as neoliberalism backfires

The ITUC 2025 Index crisis paints a stark picture of the global state of workers’ rights. According to the index, 87% of countries now restrict or block the right to strike, while 80% undermine or crush collective bargaining. What once seemed like established labour protections are eroding even in regions that long presented themselves as defenders of democracy and social dialogue. Europe and the Americas, which have been viewed as comparatively safer regions to enact unions, have reached new all-time lows in the ITUC 2025 Index. The data suggests that decades of neoliberal reforms—privatisation, deregulation, and weakened unions—are backfiring, fuelling inequality, insecurity, and social unrest.

Global rollback of strikes and bargaining

The ITUC 2025 Index crisis highlights a broad rollback of the right to strike across authoritarian and democratic systems alike. Governments are turning to the use of emergency laws, essential-services category and brutal policing to limit industrial action.

At the same time, employers and policymakers are hollowing out collective bargaining through outsourcing, gig work, and individualised employment contracts. When 80 percent of nations squash bargaining, employees are denied an important tool to obtain good pay, safe workplace and a foreseeable working schedule.

Why Europe and the Americas are hitting record lows

One of the most fearful results of the ITUC 2025 Index is the sharp fall in Europe and the Americas. The austerity policies, liberalisation of the labour market and anti-union political campaigning have undermined collective institutions that previously provided the middle-class with stability.

Wage freezes in the public sector, inhibition of union organisation as well as assaults on sector agreements has become widespread in most countries. The flexibility and competitiveness that neoliberalism has purported to offer have in many cases, led to stagnant wages, precarity in employment and an increasing level of frustration among workers who perceive themselves as having been shut out of economic benefits.

When neoliberalism backfires: jobs, wages, and democracy

The ITUC 2025 Index crisis shows how weakening labour rights can undermine both economic and democratic resilience. Suppressing strikes and collective bargaining may temporarily lower labour costs, but it also fuels inequality, depresses demand, and heightens political volatility.

The restoration of the right to organise and collectively bargain is not merely a social justice requirement; it is also a macroeconomic and democratic requirement. Stronger unions, inclusive bargaining structures, and legal protections for strikes can help distribute productivity gains, support decent jobs, and restore faith in democratic institutions shaken by decades of neoliberal backfire.