12 January, 2012A delegation of locked-out workers from Cooper Tire in the USA meets Serbian union leaders to discuss common approaches and mutual support when dealing with the company.
12 December, 2011National Executive Members of the National Engineering Workers Union (NEWU) and the Zimbabwe Metal Energy and Allied Workers Union (ZMEAWU) met in November 2011 to evaluate progress towards a merger and the level of cooperation that they have achieved.
9 December, 2011In a unanimous vote, IMF Central Committee decides to convene an extraordinary Congress in June 2012 to create a new global union for industrial workers.
8 December, 2011On December 7 the mobilization launched by the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF) was answered at all of ArcelorMittal's European sites. Tens of thousands of workers in ten European countries protested against the company's industrial strategy and job cuts.
8 December, 2011November 23-25 the Gerdau Workers' World Council met in Paipa, Colombia. The Council approved an action plan for 2011-2012 that will be distributed shortly to all unions belonging to the Council.
30 January, 2012"After three years of continuous crisis conditions in global labour markets and against the prospect of a further deterioration of economic activity, there is a backlog of global unemployment of 200 million," says ILO in its annual report, "Global Employment Trends 2012: Preventing a deeper jobs crisis".
24 January, 2012Over 150,000 workers came out on the streets of Norway to protest against the imposition of a new EU directive on temporary agency workers. The directive can undermine collective agreements by permitting temporary contracts which currently have to be agreed with the unions.
24 January, 2012In January Fair Labor Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending sweatshop conditions in factories worldwide, announced Apple was admitted as a "Participating Company". That means that Apple promises to clean its supply chains from labour abuses during the coming two years. While welcoming this move GoodElectronics promises to watch closely whether the membership means Apple takes action on key problems.
9 February, 2012Finnish-German telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) said on February 7 a previously announced global restructuring plan would entail 2,900 job cuts in Germany and 1,200 in Finland.
