5 May, 2010The Southern African Sub-Regional Meeting in Johannesburg discussed climate change issues and their impact on Africa. It was recognised that Africa will be most severely impacted by fossil based capitalist accumulation induced climate change in terms of impact but also from the limited capacity that the impoverished continent has to adapt to irreversible changes that are already underway. Trade unions need to be at the forefront of demanding appropriate measures that integrate industrial development with adaptation and mitigation strategies on climate change, realising that climate and economic issues are fundamentally linked. It was clear that a global and regional response is necessary and delegates began creating a discussion framework document to facilitate further discussions towards an Africa focused position and action plan.
20 May, 2010ITUA members in Tver, Russia keep fighting in courts. On April 27-28 a court hearing on the reinstatement of two union activists took place. The judge decided in favour of the company. However, on May 18 another court hearing ended in a significant victory for the union.
20 May, 2010The company Federal Power Cables is failing to comply with its agreement with workers and is attempting to bust the Electrical Industry Workers' Union.
31 May, 2010The IMF makes submission to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, to tell him how employers are using various forms of precarious employment expressly to prevent workers from joining a trade union and bargaining collectively.
3 June, 2010Stating that the Colombia-EU trade agreement will harm domestic production and cause unemployment, the three trade union centers in Colombia add that the agreement does not take account of the economic imbalances between the economies.
3 June, 2010ICEM with IMF & UNI hold Mexico 'Teach-In' on June 20 in Toronto, Canada to raise solidarity with and understanding of the struggle by democratic trade unions in Mexico.
2 June, 2010A representative from a Brazilian missionary group and shareholder of Vale SA, expressed his concerns at the Vale shareholder meeting in Rio de Janeiro on 19 May. Vale's executives not only discarded his concerns they also refused to have them documented in the meeting's minutes.
1 June, 2010Work pressures at Foxconn, the world's biggest manufacturer of electronics components and the main supplier to Apple, have driven workers to commit suicide. The company, instead of improving working conditions, forces workers to give promises not to harm themselves.
31 May, 2010After three days of strike and local and international solidarity action, workers at a Johnson Controls plant (Resureccion) in Puebla, Mexico won recognition of freedom of association and agreement on an improved profit sharing payment.
