6 September, 2011Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur.
22 September, 2011After 23 months of resistance, the Mexican Electricians' union SME, that staged for over 7 months a protest camp at the central plaza in Mexico City, the "Zocalo", won it's show-down with the government of Calderon in the run-up to Mexico's Independence day, September 16, Mexico's most important national holiday.
22 September, 2011Early September, Honda workers in Mexico obtained legal recognition to register STUHM (Sindicato de Trabajadores Unidos de la Honda de Mexico) as their union. The company opposes the organization and prefers the protection union that has blocked independent unions at the Honda site in Jalisco, Mexico for 26 years. Honda workers now denounce the company's continued repression and intimidation against the union and the workers wanting to join.
19 September, 2011Global union organizations held their second annual meeting in Istanbul on September 8 and 9 in the presence of union representatives from both Turkey and across the world, and called on the Turkish government to change its legislation to guarantee basic rights of workers.
19 September, 2011The UAW reached a tentative new agreement with US automaker General Motors on September 16. The agreement covers almost 50,000 GM workers in the USA. Talks continue for UAW's 41,000 members at Ford and 26,000 members at Chrysler.
18 November, 2010The new issue of Metal World, No. 2 2010, examines challenges of building a strong trade union in Mozambique and creating unity in Chile, discusses the future of the international labour movement in an interview with ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow and profiles Jairo Del Rio, Colombian trade unionist and member of the Tenaris Workers' World Council.
18 November, 2010KMWU secures another court victory in the struggle to protect the rights to join a union and bargain collectively for in-house subcontracted workers at Hyundai Motors, who on average earn less than 50 to 60 per cent of the wages of direct employees.
17 November, 2010Members of the Russian parliament Andrey Isaev and Mikhail Tarasenko, president of the Mining and Metallurgical Workers' Union (MMWU), affiliated to the IMF, introduced a bill prohibiting agency labour for consideration by the Russian parliament.
17 November, 2010Building trade union networks, organizing workers in the auto sector and tackling the challenge of precarious work were major themes of the IMF Automotive Working Group meeting held on November 8 and 9 in Detroit.
12 November, 2010Australian metalworkers are blaming the high Australian dollar for a decision by the mining truck maker Caterpillar to shift manufacturing overseas.
