25 May, 2010Mario García Ortiz, a trade union leader, was detained and then the victim of a brutal assault. A delegation of union leaders that sought an explanation for the detention were beaten and threatened by police. Workers stopped production at ArcelorMittal and marched in repudiation of this attack on Section 271 of the mining union.
25 May, 2010After four years in force, the international framework agreement with the PSA Peugeot Citroën Group has been renewed and expanded.
20 May, 2010IMF calls on affiliates to take urgent action against the assault on Johnson Controls organizers in Mexico. As featured in the latest issue of Metal World, workers at Johnson Controls trying to establish a representative union in place of a protection contract face dismissals, intimidation and violence.
20 May, 2010Documentary on Turkish women workers' struggle features at Geneva Labour Film Shorts Festival 2010, which brings the voices of workers to light in the face of the financial crisis.
20 May, 2010Workers at Renault, Bosch, Volvo and Volkswagen assembly plants in Greater Curitiba demand a bigger share of company profits.
20 May, 2010USW and AFL-CIO denounce President Felipe Calderon's repression of workers' rights during his visit to Washington, D.C. and call on the U.S. Government to raise the issue with the Mexican President.
19 May, 2010Organizing the electronics industry has long proven to be a difficult challenge for trade unions. Unionization rates remain extremely low in an industry where precarious employment is rife and labour abuses abound. To make matters worse, the electronics industry has been one of the hardest hit by the economic crisis, bringing job losses and additional downward pressure on pay and conditions. But at IMF's recent conference for the ICT, Electrical and Electronics industries on 'Organizing, Trade Union Rights and Sustainability', IMF affiliates reasserted their commitment to organizing electronics workers and improving their working conditions.
19 May, 2010According to official data, in Russia, a country with a population of over 140 million, in 2009 there was a grand total of one strike. Of course, this reflects not the actual situation, but rather the unjustifiably strict legal requirements for holding strikes. The unconvincing figures from the Russian Federal Statistics Service (Rosstat) conceal the real story of labour conflicts: hundreds of collective disputes, a multitude of clashes with management and government, which both are often prepared to go to any lengths to destroy active and combative unions.
