23 August, 2011Obituary Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) of Canada and a strong ally of trade unions, died of cancer on August 22, at the age of 61.
23 August, 2011IMF-affiliated Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), reached agreement with Verizon on August 20 on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured.
19 August, 2011A ten per cent wage increase will be implemented at the Vyshnevogorsky mining and processing plant in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in November 2011. The union cancelled the public action scheduled for August 18. Earlier the workers had demanded a 30 per cent wage increase.
19 August, 2011The agreement with the company also includes a one-off payment for union members, employment contracts for temporary workers and company contributions to the cost of school materials for the children of union members.
12 September, 2011The IMF's Communicators' Forum in Latin America was held in Brazil on 8-9 September. Delegates made progress in arranging the exchange of information between affiliates.
8 September, 2011From August 29 the management of Maruti-Suzuki India at Manesar asks workers to sign a "good conduct" pledge before allowing them to enter the plant, in effect locking out workers who refuse to give up their labour rights. Since then the management terminated 23 workers and suspended 34 on charges of misconduct and instigating workers to stop production.
6 September, 2011Australian union members of three trade union organisations are livid with the announcement that BlueScope Steel will lop 1,400 jobs in New South Wales and Victoria. Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), the Australian Workers Union (AWU), and the Electrical Trades Union of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (ETU-CEPU) met in Wollongong on 25 August and sternly moved to resist all restructuring until further labour-management consultations can occur.
6 September, 2011With the prospect of several millions more job losses in a new worldwide economic downturn, the Global Unions urge the financial institutions and G20 group of countries to put a halt to their 'destructive and ultimately self-defeating economic policies that will lead to a new surge of global unemployment'.
22 July, 2011MAS-DAF workers fight for reinstatement after being summarily fired for joining the Turkish union, Birleşik Metal-İş, were detained by gendarmerie in an effort to stop the union's second round of actions to force the government to intervene.
19 July, 2011The National Engineering Workers Union (NEWU) held its 7th special congress under the theme 27 Years of Uniting, Educating and Fighting for Workers Rights on 24 and 25 June 2011 in Kwe Kwe. The special congress called for unity within the union as well as nationally and internationally to further strengthen the struggle of workers.
