5 July, 2011General Electric (GE) workers in America ratified a four-year labour agreement in late June that now sets a pattern for 15,200 unionised GE workers in the US.

10 October, 2011In an attempt to enlist shipbuilding workers in Thailand IMF representative met the local union leaders of a large shipbuilding facility in Thailand.

10 October, 2011Unions from around the world, including IMF affiliates, participated in the ILO Workers' Symposium on Policies and Regulations to Combat Precarious Employment on October 4-7, 2011. The Symposium produced a set of recommendations on measures that the ILO should take to reduce precarious work and improve conditions for precarious workers.

6 October, 20112,200 employees in Termini Imerese and 900 Irisbus employees in Avellino risk losing their jobs if Fiat follows through with its decision to close the two plants in southern Italy.

6 October, 2011At the end of last week workers of the Gerdau plant in Cota, Colombia decided to form their own union. They made a formal demand to the Minister of Labour and informed Gerdau of their intention to start bargaining a collective agreement. The management responded with hostility.

6 October, 2011More than hundred union leaders gathered in Bangkok to demand the ratification of ILO Convention 87 and 98, minimum wage increase and decent work

30 September, 2011IMF and ICEM general secretaries sent a letter to the president of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev, demanding that the persecution of striking oil workers in Mangystau Province stops immediately and the cases of violence, threats and murders are fully investigated.

30 September, 2011The Hungarian Metalworkers federation VASAS denounces the proposed new labour code the Hungarian government is currently drawing up. A demonstration is called by trade unions on October 1 in front of the Parliament in Budapest.

28 September, 2011Caterpillar, the industrial equipment giant, increased its flexible workforce by 50% between June 2010 and June 2011

27 September, 201140 trade unionists representing workers at Tenaris facilities in Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Italy, Japan and Romania met in Zalau, Romania on September 21-23. For the first time since its creation in 2007 in Argentina, Japanese delegates attended.