6 May, 2010Workers of a smelting plant and seven mines in Georgia organized a series of industrial actions to protect their rights and improve working conditions. The management initially responded with intimidation and harassment, but has since made some concessions and talks are continuing.
6 May, 2010Mexican Miners' Union Convention decides to continue the four-year old struggle for trade union autonomy and an end to Grupo Mexico and Mexican government abuse.
6 May, 2010A Tribunal resolution repudiates government violations of human and trade union rights and calls for compliance with ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on the Freedom of Association and the Right to Organise.
6 May, 2010Fellesforbundet secures an estimated three per cent rise for metal workers in its new two year sector collective agreement with Norsk Industri.
5 May, 2010Africa: The political economy of Africa has taken another dark turn staggering under the three crises of economy, food and climate. These three crises are interdependent and find their origin in the current system of accumulation and plundering of resources by large transnational corporations. Developing a response to any of these crises can not be done in isolation to the others and hoping to be rescued by the Global North is a strategy that has historically delivered little more than empty promises. Industrialisation, decent work and strong trade unions ensuring fair production and fair trade are prerequisites to addressing poverty in Africa and averting a deepening humanitarian disaster.
14 May, 2010IMF mourns the death of the Iranian trade unionist, Farzad Kamangar, who together with another four people was secretly executed in Iran on May 9.
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.
