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.
20 June, 2011A tentative collective four year agreement was reached on 19 June in New York City for 15,000 General Electric (GE) workers in the US.
20 June, 2011An International Metalworkers' Federation's organizing project in India results in 15,000 workers in the steel industry joining a union.
28 July, 2011The global International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) family last week congratulated the victory by South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to block Brazilian mining group Vale's efforts to invest in the country, and to operate elsewhere in the region.
28 July, 2011In a secret ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, an agency of the United States Federal Government, workers at Swedwood's operation in Danville Virginia voted to be represented by IMF and Building and Wood Workers International (BWI) affiliate, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).
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.
29 June, 2011Last year Honeywell Inc. ruthlessly locked-out 228 American steelworkers at a uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois, and used scabs to replace them. The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration remarked on 17 serious safety violations that jeopardized community safety.
29 June, 2011The Mexican miners' union has indicated that with that ruling the country is moving toward the establishment of real justice in relations between Mexican unions and the government.
