6 July, 2011At a court hearing in Turin the public prosecutor demanded a 20 year jail sentence for the owners and top management of the multinational Eternit Group for wilfully and maliciously causing an ecological disaster that resulted in numerous deaths from asbestos.
5 July, 2011The Australian Workers' Union (AWU) won a definitive judgment from Fair Work Australia on 24 June that grants the union right of entry to lunch rooms at Rio Tinto's Alcan aluminium smelter in Bell Bay, Tasmania. The ruling ends months of legal wrangling and should serve as a precedent against employers from blocking legitimate union access to workers on job sites.
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.
4 July, 2011About 170,000 workers, the vast majority of whom are members of the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) embarked on a nationwide strike in the engineering sector on 4 July after a deadlock in wage negotiations. The strike action which brought Johannesburg to a standstill, was also carried out in other major cities nation wide.
2 July, 2011The twenty percent wage increase that has been awarded to workers in the engineering, iron and steel industry has been welcomed with mixed feelings. Some union members think the twenty percent is a job well done as it meet the mandate given to the National Engineering Workers Union (NEWU), that the negotiators may not accept anything less than a twenty percent increase. For others, a much higher increase was needed as the new wage minimum still means that workers of the lowest grade get half of what is required to earn at the level of the poverty datum line.
7 July, 2011Mineworker Roberto Arellano was killed June 30 at the mine of La Cienega, in Durango, Mexico. The IMF and ICEM join their Mexican affiliate Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana (SNTMMSRM) and demand adoption of laws to penalize employers who demonstrate criminal negligence.
18 April, 2012Fellesforbundet, Norwegian affiliate of the IMF, ICEM and ITGLWF, concluded a new collective agreement for the workers of metal, textile, cable and technology and data sectors granting among others equal pay and working conditions for temporary workers vis-à-vis permanent staff.
17 April, 2012IMF demands reinstatement of 204 workers at an automotive supplier company, PT. Surya Gemilang Perkasa, in Indonesia, dismissed for taking legitimate strike action on March 27 held after the company failed to implement court order to grant permanent employment.
17 April, 2012Pragatisheel Cement Shramik Sangh (PCSS), an ICEM affiliate, conducted a two-week tour of activities in Switzerland in April, educating trade union colleagues on the grave violations of work rights abuses by Holcim Cement of contract workers in India's Chhattisgarh region.
20 October, 2011On October 3 the lower house of the Belarus parliament adopted in the two readings the bill 'On Making Addenda and Amendments to Some Laws of the Republic of Belarus'. This bill, among other things, makes foreign financial support and financial aid to NGOs (including unions) completely illegal and further complicates arranging of mass protests and actions.
